Santos: Czech Republic has a good team, but we were able to stop them! What did the Portuguese coach say about the match against the Czech Republic?

Portugal defeated the Czech national team 4:0 in the group stage of the Nations League on Saturday. Fernando Santos, coach of the Portuguese national team, praised the performance of his charges.

Diogo Dalot scored for the first time in the 33rd minute, assisted by the rising Portuguese superstar. Bruno Fernandes added the second goal at the end of the first half.

The Czech national team could have reduced the score in stoppage time, but Patrick Schick missed a penalty kick and Portugal went into the box with a 2-0 lead.

Dalot scored the third goal in the fifty-second minute. Coach Santos’ men clearly had the better of the penultimate match of the Nations League group, as evidenced by the overall score.

The Portuguese added another goal in the final minutes, namely in the 82nd minute. Diogo Jota scored the fourth goal.

After the fifth match of Group 2, Portugal have climbed to the top of the table with 10 points. The Spaniards lost to the Swiss 1:2 and are now in second place with eight points.

The third place belongs to Switzerland (6 points), with the Czech Republic in last place with four points.

Santos’ statement

“Both teams wanted to win. The first half was very good from our side. We changed our tactics a little bit compared to the previous matches. The Czech Republic has a good team, but we were able to stop them today. They didn’t play like they did in the previous games because we were perfectly prepared for them,” Santos said at the press conference.

“We didn’t allow them too much, which had an impact on the result. We played too well to give the Czech team a chance to get a better result,” he added.

“When we scored the 2-0 goal, the Czech team didn’t give a penalty. The opponent got nervous, but we calmed down even more and then played completely cool. We tried to continue our performance in the second half and control the game. After the third goal it was clear, we didn’t give the Czechs too many chances to show something,” he concluded.

Source: UEFA Nations League