Portugal seeks to ward off recent `ghosts` and head towards the `rooms`
Friday’s desire (1-2), in the last round of Group H, brought to light several of the problems that affected the national team in Qatar – but which are coming from behind -, namely the display irregularity during the 90 minutes of a game and the inability to effectively match the talent of the players that make up the Portuguese squad.
Despite having secured the first place and consequent qualification in the second round, with a triumph over Uruguay (2-0), the ‘quinas’ team revealed difficulties in holding the advantages against Ghana (3-2), in the debut , and the Uruguayans (2-0), and the predicates were even more scarce against the South Koreans, who took the opportunity to ‘stamp’ the passage.
Even so, neither the leadership nor the qualification escaped and Portugal will now star in the ‘eighths’ in a European duel with Switzerland, a formation that ‘survived’ a Group G that had Brazil, Serbia and Cameroon, and that, in the final round, was one goal away from securing the first position, conquered by the Brazilians.
The Swiss had a record identical to that of the Portuguese team, with two wins and a defeat: they beat the Africans (1-0), lost with the `screte` (0-1) and beat the Serbs (3-2), guaranteeing the presence in the next phase for the third consecutive edition, since 2014.
Moreover, this will be the third clash between the two footprints this year, following the two held for the League of Nations, both in the space of a week, in June, with Portugal thrashing 4-0 in Alvalade and, a week returned, to be defeated by 1 to 0, in Geneva.
In the ‘mira’ of Portugal is the first appearance in the quarter-finals since 2006, in which he consumed the ‘socks’, and in the three following appearances, in 2010, 2014 and 2018, the best he achieved was to reach precisely the ‘eighth’ in the South Africa and Russia. In between, it was the group stage in Brazil.
After having changed six `pieces` against the Asians, Fernando Santos should return to the `version` that ensured the two triumphs in this edition of the World Cup, with the expected return of Rúben Dias, Raphaël Guerreiro, William Carvalho, Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva and João Félix to eleven, in which Diogo Costa, João Cancelo, Pepe, Rúben Neves and Cristiano Ronaldo will remain.
Not even the completely detached – at times even embarrassing – performance against South Korea will take away the captain’s spot in the starting line-up, taking into account the status he enjoyed in the selections of Fernando Santos, who, in the 80 games in which he used Ronaldo, only in three of them did he not launch it at first: two with Andorra (an official one in 2017 and a private one in 2020) and, more recently, with Spain, in the League of Nations, in Seville.
One of the few doubts that could be in the coach’s mind is the eventual title of Diogo Dalot, one of the few – if not the only one – to escape the disastrous collective performance in the last game and that, in this case, would demote Cancelo or Guerreiro to the substitute bench. A scenario that is not easily configured, but still not to be ruled out.
Portugal and Switzerland will play on Tuesday, starting at 22:00 local time (19:00 in Lisbon), at Estádio de Lusail, the largest of the eight World Cup venues (capacity for 88,000 spectators) and where beat Uruguay on Monday.