The Portuguese women’s soccer team aims to reach the last game of the group stage depending only on itself to reach the ‘eighth’, highlighted the national coach, Francisco Neto, in an interview with Lusa.
“Above all, and I will always emphasize this, we want to get to the last game depending only on ourselves, that is, to be competent to score enough points to, in the last game, against the United States, or to be already qualified.” , and this was perfect, it was ideal, or else it would only depend on us to be able to move on to the next phase”, stressed Francisco Neto.
And he added: “We will always leave there frustrated if we look at the games and think that we were not competitive enough and that it was too easy to beat us. And that cannot happen, we don’t want to.” walk out with that feeling. We have to be very competitive, very organized to be able to depend only on ourselves on the last day”.
The race towards that goal begins on July 23, in Dunedin, at 8:30 a.m. (in Lisbon), against the Netherlands, a team against which Portugal lost 3-2 in the group stage of Euro2022, after coming back from a 0-2. at 2-2.
“It won’t be the same Netherlands, but it won’t be the same Portugal either. The Netherlands changed coaches after the Euro. They have clearly grown in the quality of the game. Even now they beat Belgium 5-0.” he warned.
According to Francisco Neto, it is a “renewed, motivated team, with more dominant football, with other types of principles that they did not present” in the Eurocup.
“Therefore, we expect a very difficult game, but we also want Portugal to create difficulties for the Netherlands. Without a doubt, it will be an important, remarkable game. I hope that, emotionally, since it is our first game in a World Cup, we will be able to be emotionally calm to be able to compete and be competitive as we have been in recent times against these great teams. That is what we are looking for, ”he stressed.
Then, on July 27, in Hamilton, again at 08:30 (in Lisbon), it is followed by Vietnam, which, like Portugal, makes its World Cup debut.
“We already know Vietnam, which even has one of its captains playing in Portugal, at Länk Vilaverdense. It will be a very competitive opponent. They just lost 2-1 to powerful Germany about 10 days ago,” said Lusa.
According to the Portuguese coach, the Asian team “takes away a lot of space from the rival, presses all over the field, has many individual references and, then, it’s a team that, when it has the ball, is very aggressive in attacking depth”.
“So it will always be a very difficult game, with a completely different pattern of problems, possibly with different types of situations, having more ball, having to explore other types of spaces, different types of approach to the game, but without a doubt. that we have to have the utmost respect and the utmost care,” he predicted.
Closing Group E, Portugal faces, on August 1, at 8:00 am (in Lisbon), in Auckland, where its “headquarters” is in New Zealand, the United States, the two-time champion.
“Favourite? It is one of the, without a doubt, but it is also the third game and I think that a third game has many nuances and is difficult to predict. Injuries, accumulated fatigue, you rotated the team more, you did not rotate the team a lot, you are more Tired, right? There are many things that are going to happen,” he said.
In any scenario, however, Portugal will face “the maximum exponent of what a team is, the two-time world champions, with highly experienced players, who lived those two championships, and with a group of new players, who also I want to live these moments.”
“We know how important this selection is to American society. It is a global affirmation of what American sports is, which we know they love and, therefore, they will always be a very difficult opponent”, he clarified to Lusa.
The team knows what it will find: “We have played with them four times in recent years in a private context and we always know the difficulties, what it is like to face the United States and much less in a World Cup.” “.
“It has to be a tremendously organized, fresh Portugal, with a very strong collective”, he stressed, guaranteeing: “We want to and we will arrive prepared. We will try to do our best, also thinking game by game, calmly. We have to depend only on ourselves and, arriving there in a position to depend only on ourselves, our competence to make our wishes come true must come to light”, he stressed.
In short, “the big goal is to get to the game with the United States” with the qualification in hand and, afterward, “to be competent enough to play more than three games.”
“We really want to play more than three games, but we also know that to play more than three games we have to be competent in the others. In these very short competitions, it is impossible for luck to drip on you three times. He is not competent, he does not fall three times, so you have to have a lot of work involved, ”he concluded.
The Portuguese women’s team in Portugal makes its debut at the 2023 World Cup, which will take place in Australia and New Zealand, from July 20 to August 20, with the Portuguese team in Group E, with the Netherlands (game on July 23, in Dunedin), Vietnam (27, in Hamilton) and the United States (August 1, in Auckland).
Source: TSF
