A BOLA – Watch Portugal-Cyprus by the minute (U-21) here
6 minutes: Portugal’s goal! Crossing by Fábio Vieira, deflection of a Cypriot defender and Gonçalo Ramos, the first shot to count. Great goal by the Portuguese striker, the sixth in this qualifying round. 1-0.
The 4-4-2 losango of Portugal is confirmed, with João Mário (right wing), Eduardo Quaresma and Gonçalo Inácio (central) and Nuno Tavares (left wing) to form the defensive quartet, with Tiago Dantas as the furthest back of the four midfield, Fábio Vieira on the inside right, Vitinha on the inside left and Afonso Sousa on the most offensive vertex of the diamond, on the back of the two strikers, Fábio Silva and Gonçalo Ramos.
Start of match!
As had already happened in Larnaca, last Friday, and due to the absence of Rui Jorge (infected with Covid-19) from the bench of substitutes, Romeu Almeida will be one of the assistants of this Under-21 National Team to command the team. corners.
It should be remembered that the winners of all nine groups and the best runner-up automatically ensure their presence in the final stage of the 2023 European Championship, with the remaining eight runners-up going to compete in a ‘play-off’.
This Group D, and in addition to Portugal and Cyprus, of course, also include Greece, Iceland, Belarus and Liechtenstein. In the afternoon of Tuesday, Greece won and won Iceland, 1-0, while Belarus thrashed in Liechtenstein (4-0). With today’s victory, Greece rose to the top of the group, with 14 points from 6 games played. If Portugal wins Cyprus tonight, it will return to first place, adding 15 points and 5 games, in other words, it will still have one game less than the Greeks.
Of the 14 goals already scored by Portugal in this qualifying phase, the highlight goes to Gonçalo Ramos, who has already scored 5 goals. The remaining 9 are divided by Fábio Vieira (3), Fábio Silva (2), Nuno Tavares, André Almeida, Tiago Tomás and Francisco Conceição.
Cyprus, in turn, will also go to the fifth match, and, in the four clashes already held, the Cypriots have already known all three possible results: 0-0 against Greece (away), 6-0 against Liechtenstein (away ), 6-0 against Liechtenstein (home) and 0-1 against Portugal (home). Scores made, two wins, one draw and one defeat, 7 points won, with 12 goals scored and only 1 conceded. In front of Portugal, precisely, on Friday, in Larnaca.
This will be Portugal’s fifth game in this Group D qualifying game for the 2023 UEFA European Championship, which will take place in Romania and Georgia. So far, Rui Jorge’s men (who will not be on the bench in tonight’s match, as he tested positive for Covid-19) have won all the duels in this qualifying phase: 1-0 against Belarus (home), 11-0 to Liechtenstein (home), 1-0 to Iceland (away) and 1-0 to Cyprus (away). Four games, four wins, 14 goals scored and none conceded.
Portugal: Celton Biai; João Mário, Eduardo Quaresma, Gonçalo Inácio, Nuno Tavares, Afonso Sousa, Tiago Dantas, Vitinha (C), Fábio Vieira, Fábio Silva and Gonçalo Ramos.
Substitutes: Gonçalo Tabuaço, Alexandre Penetra, Tomas Handel, Henrique Araújo, Tiago Araújo, Gonçalo Borges, Tomás Tavares, Vítor Oliveira and Francisco Conceição.
Coach: Rui Jorge
Cyprus: Stephanos Kittos; Konstantinos Sergiou, Antreas Karamanolis, Christos Shelis, Nikolaos Panagiotou, Thomas Nikolaou, Andreas Chrysostomou, Michalis Ioannou (C), Ioannis Costi, Giannis Gerolemou and Andreas Katsantonis.
Substitutes: Kyriakou, Paroutis, Charalampous, Ilia, Avraam, Pikis, Eftychides, Michail and Michael.
Coach: Ioannis Okkas
Referee: Kristoffer Karlsson (Sweden)
Assistants: Niklas Nyberg and Marcus Lundgren Klitte
4th Arbitrator: Fredrik Klitte
There are already teams!
The Under-21 National Team faces again today (20:15 hours), Cyprus, an opponent that they won on Friday by 1-0, in Larnaca, with a goal by Gonçalo Ramos (15 ‘). You can see here the incidents of the match, at the Estádio de São Luís, in Faro, in which the team from the corners is looking for their fifth victory in as many matches in Group 4 in qualifying for the European in the category, in 2023.
Goodnight!