A sold-out Eden watched the debacle. Portugal beat Šilhavy’s team by four goals

The penultimate match in the Nations League group was played between the Czech Republic and Portugal on Saturday evening in Eden, Prague. The favourite was obvious, but the sold-out Fortuna Arena was hoping for a surprise. But it didn’t happen. How did the match look?

The opening of the first half looked promising, but the Portuguese quickly took the initiative

As already mentioned, Portugal went into the game as favourites. However, in the first five minutes they could have been caught off guard. The Czech team didn’t do badly and Patrik Schick’s chances in particular were interesting.

But after a sleepy start, the Iberian side woke up, took the initiative and began a more or less full-fledged display of great quality. The Portuguese combined well, controlled the game and took the lead in the 33rd minute.

Rafael Leao took advantage of the chaos in the opponents’ sixth and with a pass underneath found Diogo Dalot, who hit the ball between the legs of Tomas Vaclik. To make matters worse, the Portuguese scored their second goal in stoppage time after a series of errors. Bruno Fernandes scored.

It is worth noting that Cristiano Ronaldo did not have a good half. He wasted two chances and, at the end of the first act, played his hand in his own penalty area to secure a penalty for the home team.

Schick took the penalty kick, but only hit the crossbar, from which the ball bounced high over the bar. Once again he confirmed that his start to the season is far from good.

Portugal’s dominance continued in the second act

As badly as the first act ended, so began the second. From the very beginning, the Portuguese showed that they are qualitatively on a different level. But the fact is that Jaroslav Šilhavy’s charges did not make it difficult for them.

So in the 53rd minute came a well-deserved penalty. The Portuguese were calmly combining in the attacking half and the opponent just passively watched. Dalot took advantage of the inattention and passivity of the Czech players, who tried to shoot with his left from 22 metres and surprised Vaclik, who had to fish the ball out of the net for the third time.

After the goal the home team was searching for a while, but after a few substitutions they managed to revive the game. However, due to inaccuracies, the Portuguese goal was not threatened properly. However, another factor was the obvious Portuguese quality.

This was confirmed in the 82nd minute. After a corner kick, Ronaldo extended his header to Diogo Jota, who added a fourth goal to the Czech net.

Moreover, the Swiss defeated Spain and in Tuesday’s return match Šilhavy’s charges will have to win if they want to stay in the A-League.

Source: UEFA