A downright disaster for anyone who wants to win the trophy. Portugal made its debut at the U-21 European Championship yesterday with a defeat against host country Georgia (2-0). Georgia scored two goals in Tbilisi today to go into halftime with a lead after landing two fatal blows to Celton Biai. Gio Gagua’s (36″) and (45″+1″) goals were the result of Portuguese errors.
During the break, Rui Jorge made two offensive changes – Henrique Araújo and Francisco Conceição replaced Vitinha and Afonso Sousa – and that was immediately noticeable. In the 47th minute Henrique Araújo appeared in the heart of the penalty area to head past the opposing goal and five minutes later Francisco Conceição hit the crossbar. Pedro Neto and André Almeida also tested Luka Kutaladze’s attention, but that was all.
Tomás Araújo was aware and the blunders only ended with the exclusion in the 76th minute. Recovering from a two-goal deficit with one less with only 14 minutes to play tested the team’s character and the coach’s tactics. The coach had one of the worst matches since he led the Under-21 team (October 2010).
Nothing seemed to go right for the Portuguese team, but there was also a lot of self-blame. There was always a lack of intelligence in the last pass and the Georgian wall grew denser and more robust. The lack of pace was also evident. And if for some the tiredness of the season could explain any offensive ineffectiveness, for the most part the explanation would be the absence of a game in the last month. And in this respect, one can also question Rui Jorge’s pre-season strategy, who chose not to play a single game before the match.
The draw in Portugal’s other group stage match, between Belgium and the Netherlands (0-0), will eventually settle the bills, as the Portuguese team face the Netherlands on Saturday. But the signals being given today are far from optimistic.
Source: DN
