withIt was almost 45 minutes of boring at first, and then a lot of hard and busy pace: this is how the last 16 matches between Belgium and Portugal in Seville on Sunday night looked like. In the end, the Belgian scored 1-0 to advance. Thorns Hazard (42 minutes) for the quarter-finals of the European Football Championship, she will be in Munich on Friday (9pm) FAZ European Football Championship live broadcast And meet with Italy at MagentaTV. In contrast, the defending champion was out after a mixed performance in this game.
Defending champion candidate, star striker duel Cristiano Ronaldo And Romelu Lukaku: This duel between the two European football superstars promises many rich stories and delightful snapshots. The Portuguese team only advanced to third group F after winning and losing, which is a good sign. After all, the Lusitania were even more unremarkable in the knockout prelude of the 2016 French European Championship, before they surprised all the hasty experts, and at the end snatched the Champions League from under their noses.
On the other hand, Belgium has won three straight from the start: 3-0 against Russia, 2-1 against Denmark, and 2-0 against Finland. In fact, it is obvious to the Red Devils that the so-called golden generation wants their last chance to become one of the most coveted trophies in world football.
At the summit in hot Seville, who will reach working temperature first, this is the first exciting question in the spacious city stadium Olimpico de la Cartuja on Sunday night. But the answer is to wait a long time. At first, both sides tried to control their opponents, but nothing happened. After that, nothing happened except Ronaldo’s free kick. He scored 5 goals in this European Championship and became the record scorer in the history of the European Championship with 14 goals. But Ronaldo’s attempt could easily be captured by goalkeeper Courtois.
It happened when everyone believed that the two teams’ cautious approach would lead to a 0-0 goal. First of all, Munier’s shot just missed the Portuguese goal triangle (37th). Then his bustling Dortmund club colleague Thorgan Hazard, mentioned by Meunier, had the courage to shoot. You see: his twist in the left corner of the penalty area surprised goalkeeper Rui Patricio, who reacted better in a similar test, namely grip.
The door to a better game has suddenly opened through this door. The Portuguese are now at least facing the challenge of discovering a forward gear, if their dream of a championship title can live longer. On the other hand, the Belgian had to deal with a small shock at the beginning of the second half. Kevin De Bruyne, The dizzy king of organizers resigned and was replaced by Driss Mertens (No. 48).
At the same time, Portugal has stepped up its offensive, but lacks enlightening explanations for the time being. So the head coach Fernando Santos reacted by replacing the humble Moutinho and Bernard with young star Joao Felix and Manchester United striker Diogo Jota (No. 56). Do Silva.
Two minutes later, the Portuguese ushered in their first great opportunity, with Cristiano Ronaldo starting and Diogo Jota in the penalty area. The latter shot too high. The Portuguese wanted to reverse the situation, the Belgians concentrated on defense, relying on decisive counterattacks. LukakuSo far, the best scorer in Belgian international history (63 goals in 97 games), when his shot hit the crossbar (63rd time), he almost missed his fourth goal.
The duel between the two high-stakes teams now finally has a higher speed and tension that was lacking before.In addition, the tone and behavior on the court were relatively rough, which made the German referees Felix Black Enough to calm the mind down. The Portuguese coach let Andre Silva, the second-best scorer in the Bundesliga, score 28 goals for Frankfurt in the Bundesliga and play in the last 20 minutes. He also didn’t give a new route to the increasingly busy game. Dortmund left-back Guerrero has the best chance of equalizing, his long shot in the center post (83rd), but fortunately the defending champion no longer hits.
