The Portuguese women’s football team lost 2-1 to Austria on Tuesday in a fourth-round match in League of Nations Group A2, with the Austrians making efficiency their biggest asset.
In a match where the goals only came in the second half, Viktoria Pinther opened the scoring in the 72nd minute, and although Portugal responded and saved the draw, the outsiders, through Ana Capeta, were deadly in the 75th minute and decided the match, at 77, by Eillen Campbell.
With this defeat, the Portuguese team suffered their third defeat in the group and remained in third place, with three points, in a maintenance play-off position, while the Austrian team consolidated second place, now with seven.
The ‘pool’ is led by France, with nine points, which today still plays with Norway, the last placed, with one.
For this challenge, the team ‘quinas’ presented itself with three changes compared to the match against the same opponent, Friday (also in a 2-1 defeat), with the additions of Joana Marchão, Dolores Silva and Andreia Norton to ‘eleven’. ‘.
Despite the heavy rain at the start of the match, the Portuguese team showed a sign of danger after just eight minutes, with a shot from Kika Nazareth, which the opposing goalkeeper saved.
The Austrians, despite the initial shock, showed sharper football on counter-attacks and responded accordingly; In addition to a shot against Sarah Zadrzail’s crossbar, they tested the attention of goalkeeper Patrícia Morais at the age of 14, with an initiative from Barbara Dunst shortly afterwards.
The visitors managed to approach the Portuguese goal more dangerously, but not having the best final definition at this stage, they exposed themselves to counter-attacks from the national team, who even had two good chances to open the scoring before half time. in a pair of shots from Jéssica Silva and Dolores Silva, which narrowly missed the target and kept the score goalless.
Portugal started the break better and left two more threats on the other goal in the opening minutes of the restart, with a pair of shots from Jéssica Silva and Diana Silva denying the Austrian goalkeeper.
The Portuguese continued to be more present in the opponent’s midfield, but were unable to duplicate Austria’s cohesion and began to use long shots, namely a shot from the recently introduced Ana Capeta.
On the other hand, the Austrians, who had shown little in this extra stage, proved to be deadly in their first approach to the Portuguese goal, with second-half bet Viktoria Pinther opening the scoring in the 72nd minute, after a counter attack…
Despite the blow, Portugal did not give up, Ana Capeta justified the bet in the 75th minute, in a great run, after a beautiful assist from Kika Nazareth, bypassing the goalkeeper and shooting the equalizer.
With the match open again, it was up to Austria to emphasize their tremendous effectiveness in the 77th minute; on the second approach to the goal in this additional leg he took the lead again and made it 2–1, in another counter-attack, this time finished by Eillen Campbell.
Portugal did not throw in the towel, continued to press and even came close to the goal, with a header from Kika Nazareth from a free kick, but no longer had any discernment to avoid defeat.
The Portuguese now face Norway (away) and France (home) on December 1 and 5 respectively in two decisive matches for the team’s ambitions.
Source: DN
