Loved how we played and the attitude today. Like I said Moutinho over Bruno any day of the week. It's sad how bad he is. Sanches now a for sure starter and Palhina soon to take Danilo spot. Bernardo played better but is still not the guy he was for city last year. Semedo was much better today not having to cover Williams man and Pepe was a boss helping with mbappe. That pk was nonsense total garbage as was var awarding a clear offside a goal. Renato man of the match. Roll on Belgium Sunday.
Hahaha. if you're going to tell your keeper which way to dive, do it in private. Patricio might have though that Benzema saw Pepe telling him to dive right, so he could have changed his mind thinking that Benzema would change it up
Belgium have an aging, average defence. They are certainly there to be got at. There’s a few teams I’d be much more fearful of facing De Bruyne and Lukaku are the only threats, but we have a better squad and better management
As someone who came to this sport after years of following the big American sports, I still have so many issues with the rules (or lack thereof) surrounding penalties. The Mbappe dive reminded me of the complete lack of nuance as to why PKs are given. On a play like that - even if Semedo had committed foul - there's no reason why a PK should be awarded when the ball is flying over everyone's head out of bounds. If the ball isn't "playable" by the attacker, they should never be gifted a PK. There are simply too many instances where a PK is given because an attacker races to the ball, toe-pokes it hard out of play to prove they got there first, dives over the GK and gets a PK when they never even had possession or gave themselves a chance to do anything; or someone has the ball, back to goal, in the end line corner of the penalty area, gets bumped, and earns a PK. The Mbappe play reminded me of the American football rule where, if a quarterback throws a pass to that is not catchable by his teammate, it doesn't matter if that teammate was interfered with; the pass has to be catchable for pass interference to be called. And that's the type of common sense I'd like to see applied to PKs: Fewer PKs More penalty area FKs Deadball PKs (like in hockey, 1v1 and whether they make it or miss it the PK ends there; no second chance to tap a rebound into an empty net with the GK laying by the post)
Bruno played 4,584 minutes this season for Manchester United, which is an insanely high number on its own. Their season from PL opener to EL final was 35 weeks long. On average, that's 131 min. (or 1.5 matches) every single week. He has also played 892 min. for Portugal since early September. That adds up to 5,476 min. for club and country over a 292-day span, which is still 131 min./week from Sept. 5 through yesterday. He has played a match and a half every week for 42 weeks straight as an attacking mid. He's simply played too much football.
There's a big difference between a friendly vs. Israel (who took three shots all match) where each team plays 17 guys and high-intensity tournament matches against hosts and world powers. There are plenty of things to question about Bruno's fit/usage under Santos and his lack of impact, but it's fairly obvious that a player like him will be less than 100% and less effective 5,500 minutes into a season. He has played the equivalent of 61 full matches so far.
I think The BBC outlined a statistic highlighting how Bruno Fernandes has played the most soccer out of any top flight player since the Covid restart in summer 2020. Either way his form is a shame because with the fragility along the Belgian back line, and how open their midfield is, it would be the ideal game for Bruno to dominate in the middle and create chance after chance and drift into prime shooting positions.
The thing is, Bruno is the type of player who can decide a game with a few seconds of brilliance. Last night, for instance, there was a stretch when the ball bounced kindly to a wide-open Moutinho just outside the box a couple times in a short period and I just thought, "Can that please happen when Bruno's on the pitch?"
Bruno's back is hurting after carrying Man United on his back for 2 years almost. Pogba played well because he does jack for United and relies on Bruno, only appears once every 5 or 6 games with a good performance. Anyways. As others have said, Belgium are sort of the hipster team everyone goes for, but they haven't done anything and I predict they'll continue to do nothing. They're 1st in the world fifa ranking is a lie, they never play friendlies, so They're always fresh and always finish 1st in qualifying and get the easiest groups. Denmark dominated them in the first half and lost because they couldn't contain KDB who came on. The game plan is to mark KDB out of the game, if Ruben Dias steps up his game and Pepe continues to boss the backline, they can handle Lukaku. Other than that, Hazard is out of form but still has quality and need to watch out for him. And defensively They're a bit suspect IMO. I would repeat the line up where possible, but with Semedo and Danilo are possibly out, Dalot and Palhinha (who imrpessed when he came on) should start.
Palhinha, Renato and Moutinho have to be our midfield 3. Surely, F.Santos has to realize this by now?!? And yet he'll start William
Fans were calling for changes and dude made the changes, in what turned out to be a pretty important game. We could've gone out if France scored at 2-2. gotta give him credit for that
Dalot is the better defender and can cross the ball. He is more of a balanced fullback. If he plays, Belgium will not target his side. Only thing to worry about with Dalot is the lack of experience with the senior team.
It was too stressful to watch I was convinced that Ronaldo would miss the second penalty, but he has balls of STEEL!!!!! Biggest disappointment has been Bruno Fernandes!
Moutinho was HUGE yesterday for us. Anyone wanting him off is out of his mind. He's old, can't shoot to save his life, but he is the perfect midfield partner with Renato. Our midfield had what it been lacking: balance. More of that, please.
I can't disagree with you there. I'm not the biggest fan of Moutinho (especially not this late in his career), however, he brought composure, leadership and knew how to move the ball to retain possesion. Being a veteran, nerves simply didn't get to him at all. I am really hoping Santos realizes that it's time to get away from William at least. Maybe as a back up sub in the 2nd half if you want to hold on to a lead (errr Maybe?) but he's just not the guy we need in the mid right now. Palhinha, Renato & Moutinho to start. If Santos is too stubborn, fine, Danilo can start instead of Palhinha (on a short leash).
We are a tired, banged up team and they have two more days of rest. That is my worry that fatigue will play a roll, but should be in better shape if move past this game.
@JoseEmidio will create the match thread soon where we can discuss but if you heard that Belgium will best us from that polish guy, dont worry, he's only guessed two of the three last winners of major tournaments, nothing to scoff at but nothing major either.
i agree with your sentiments on penalties as long as it’s not a diliberete take down of a man. Common sense has to Prevail
I Will do one tomorrow. One win, one draw, one defeat...you know what this means, Extra Time win like against Croatia by Quaresma. Last time 3 points, we cruised this time with 4
Decent game by the Seleção. First half was really good and second half was ok. The French goals definitely pissed me off especially after being reviewed by VAR(what the ******** is the point if you wont reverse it???). I liked the starting lineup and was impressed with how they started(Moutinho especially). Bruno has been a disappointment for sure. But I wouldn't mind if they brought him along side Sanches as the attacking CMs and Danilo or Palhinha as the CDM. Maybe bring in Felix for Bernardo? Eitherway, Sanches needs to start. For the second half it was obvious France made some adjustments (wish we did that against Germany...). But Portugal held on. Hopefully Portugal can take this momentum they gained into the next match vs Belgium. Força Portugal!
I only mentioned the israel game because its literally the only game he played good in out of 34 appearances. How can him being tired be used as an excuse for being trash in this tournament, when he is trash in all the other 30 games too? The excuse only works if he played well in prior to euro 2020, and only now he suddenly sucked, but this is not the case. Its similar to Felix. He has played trash for practically every Portugal appearance. Therefore, he shouldn't feature anymore. The same applies to bruno