PORTUGAL VS MOROCCO 2018 FIFA World Cup Group Stage [R]

Yeah Pepe pulling bullshit again. It's this shit that has people hating on Portugal so much... Every WC there is something.

 

Just a thought, remember how poorly France, Argentina, Brazil, Germany played against weaker opponents.

 

Lol I’ve read some stupid things on this forum, but this may take the trophy.

 

Or the Battle of the Dark Lords

Uruguai - Portugal

 

As everybody said - god awful. And this was way different than our Euro group stage problems. There we played well/decently and got unlucky not to score. Here, we looked embarrassing and somehow pulled off a victory. I've never seen us give up so many turnovers.

Our Midfield is a huge worry. I'm not sure Santos knows what to do.
We have now played Moutinho 2 x 90 minutes (or close to) - that's a sad statement compared to Euro. He didn't play nearly as badly as J Mario or B Silva - he didn't cough up the ball everytime he touched it but he's clearly not getting the ball either. He's basically a chicken running around trying to disrupt play without getting the ball. On the plus side, he did get the cross for the goal so at least that... Thus I doubt he has the legs to start again - esp. on the short rest between game 2 and 3. But who's going to do better in that position? Nobody from Bruno Fernandes, Adrien or Bernardo Silva looked ready to play today. (Adrien was there for 7 minutes and lost a ball and then promptly got a yellow).

Joao Mario was so bad Fernando Santos couldn't even look at him during the sub. But he somehow let him start the 2nd half?! I'm not sure he plays again unless we are desperate. That's how badly he played.

Gelson: anyone mention him? I don't think he completed a pass. He dribbled 3-4 times and lost it every single time.

Only positives:
Patricio: huge. Save of the tournament so far.
Pepe/Fonte/Cedric did well. Guerreiro was manhandled by their very good winger. Luckily the winger finally tired at min. 70.
William - the only cool head in MF.
Ronaldo's goal and pass. Otherwise he didn't have a great game either. He also wasted possession.

All in all a pretty bizarre situation. The American commentators for once were being kind to Portugal - and gave them the possible out that they were exhausted from the Spain game...

 

That is the side of Pepe we don't want to see.

 

Let's hope that we can attribute a lot of this shitty performance to "fatigue". Better recover in the next few days and prepare themselves well to finish the group stage strong with another win over Iran.

If we can manage to finish top of the group, this could be huge for us.

 

Fatigued? They had 5 days before todays game? How bout at the euros when we had less games, or France playing us on 2 days rest. 5 days rest is plenty in football, thats not a legitimate excuse for todays performance.

 

Maybe we had a traditional World cup night out with a bunch of hookers on Monday night

 

Random thoughts...

We didn’t seem like ourselves out there beyond the rare glimpses.
To work as a team we need individual execution and this wasn’t there...how do you maintain control and string passes together without initial control of the ball or a good first pass (Mario & Bernardo in particular)
That said Morocco was playing for their lives and it was likely better for us to see this now than when both teams are playing in this situation.
Guerreiro had a rough outing and he had little support
One thing that notably pissed me off was when we actually held possession in stoppage time and Bruno inexplicably goes for goal from distance giving the ball away with time on the clock - low risk of something coming of it but I certainly prefer no risk.
I believe Andre needs to start the next game.
I keep saying Portugal is more than just Ronaldo...and he has 100% of our goals.
Portuguese football trolling 2.0 the World Cup edition.

 

I thought the kinder comment was how good teams find a way to win when they're playing poorly.

 

Do we want Russia with a stadium and momentum behind them or a Uruguay that looked really dull against Egypt but still has two deadly strikers?

 

I would chalk the fall up to fatigue - Pepe’s legs buckled under the added weight of the hand to the shoulder due to extreme lactic acid build up in his quads

 

I'm not saying that was the case, I was going on based on what the commentators were saying after the crazy Spain game. Obviously, that probably wasn't the reason why we played so badly.

Having said that, I'm still optimistic about our chances of progressing and for our guys to actually show up and play to their full potential as the tournament goes on. Better having this stinker now than in the KO stage.

 

What a work horse

 

I agree that the game had to be at Morocco's expenses since they had lost the first game, and were trailing behind from the beginning of the game. Portugal was attacking with few players, nonetheless the attackers decision making was often incorrect i.e. GG, Bruno Fernandes, Gelson, Bernardo Silva. Something tells me that Cristiano being on the field and how impatient he sometimes gets only adds extra pressure on the minnows shoulders

 

That's a good question. For me, I would rather play against Russia, even if they're the hosts. We fared quite well against France as the hosts no? lol...

Russia is running on a "high" and the crowd and being home has a LOT to do with it, however, we should be in measure to get past them with a good performance.

Uruguay is more talented and their front two could really hurt us. I still think we're the better team but I could just see Suarez faking that his legs got cut off to get a penalty or something stupid of that nature... Hate that rat.

Let's hope we can get out of the group first though.

 

As a side note, Gonçalo Guedes will remain at Valencia, it's official.

https://abola.pt/Nnh/Noticias/Ver/736372

 

Probably the right thing for him to do... Plenty of playing time in one of the best leagues in the world.

 

Thank you Ronaldo.

We played like crap. We let them rush us into turnovers. We simply got out worked in our midfield. We rushed bad passes. When a team presses that hard, you should make them chase the ball. Pass that ball around until their are openings.
Gelson Martins had so many turnovers by trying to carry the ball instead of making the smart pass. Moutinho is having a hard time out there. Loosing too many battles.
We knew going in that they were going to play desperate. Loose they are out. We weathered the storm. I hope the next game, we play smart.
Pepe, F off and play like the man we know you are. Our team does not need that kind of crap to win.

 

Odd that you pointed out how bad Mario and Gelson played (in limited time) but made no mention on how God awful Guedes was and little mention of Bernardo.

As a Man City player poised for a huge World Cup Bernardo was absolutely useless. So was Fernandes, who kept trying to dribble instead of pass and kept trying to play hero ball with wildly off target shots.

Seems to be a lack of discipline on the coaching side. Santos taking to long to make tactical changes.

Sub Moutinho for Adrien, Mario for Gelson, and Guedes for Andre Silva.

Mario, Moutinho and Guedes played themselves out of this starting 11.

 

I was disappointed Guedes, was hoping to see him have a better game after the Spain game but he struggled. Still, our biggest problem was our midfield .

 

Honestly, I don't think Guedes played all that poorly. He near-goal was somewhat unlucky in that the keeper literally just stood there.

Once again, I'm more disheartened by Bernardo's performance. His game is working in tight spaces, keeping possession and springing teammates free with smart passes. He has done none of that so far, losing the ball and playing poor passes more than I've ever seen from him.

 

I am not putting as much blame on Guedes because the midfield wasn't connecting passes to the forwards. Midfield got manhandled today.