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02.06.2016 » England 1-0 Portugal. No Ronaldo and not even a shot on goal!
Another game in English soil and another loss for the Portuguese National Team. The curse of not being capable of beating England in their own ground seems very real and in a game where Ronaldo was still unavailable, Portugal left Wembley with a 1-0 loss in the bag. As if this game wasn't hard enough already with 11 against 11 on the pitch, Bruno Alves decided to do one of his kung-fu moves deep in the first half and left his side playing with 10 men for the remaining fo the game. England was then able to increase the pressure and would eventually score the winning goal near the end, in a good header by Manchester United's defender, Chris Smalling. We're now 8 days away from the EURO 2016 kickoff...
England 1-0 Portugal - Goals and highlights:
With Cristiano Ronaldo and Pepe still enjoying a short break before joining the Portuguese Team and also start their preparation for the EURO 2016, Fernando Santos had to resort to an alternative strategy for tonight's clash against a well organized England team.
The Portuguese manager opted by stacking the field with center midfielders and not playing with any pure striker upfront. He gave Nani and Rafa enough freedom to look for spaces in the back of England's defense, but the truth is that they never really looked like much of a threat to the hosts. Portugal finished the game without a single shot on goal...
The key moment in this game took place around the 35th minute of the first half, when Bruno Alves went for a kung-fu tackle aiming for Harry Kane's head. This wasn't the first time the Portuguese defender is involved in a violent play like this and the referee didn't hesitate in showing him the red card. Fernando Santos reacted with disappointment and had to pull off Rafa for Fonte, in order to restore the back four in defense.
As expected, Portugal pulled back their lines and hoped that a counter sooner or later would still give them a realistic chance to do something positive in this game. However and despite the good cohesion and team spirit displayed throughout the whole game, the attack was pretty much innocuous most of the time. It's certainly going to be a different when Ronaldo is back though...
England started dominating the game and creating more chances after the sending off and eventually got to the goal that would secure them the victory. With Portugal mainly worried in defending the goalless draw, England found a way to finally beat Rui Patrício in the 86th minute, after a cross from Sterling on the left that Smalling would finish with a clean header to the far post. 1-0 to England and end of story for Fernando Santo's men in Wembley.
Portugal will now return to Lisbon in order to play their last friendly ahead of the EURO 2016 against Estonia, in a game where both Cristiano Ronaldo and Pepe are expected to already be in the roster.
Portugal line-up vs Norway:
Goalkeeper: Rui Patrício
Defenders: Eliseu, Bruno Alves, Ricardo Carvalho, Vieirinha
Midfielders: Danilo, Adrien, João Moutinho, João Mário
Attackers: Rafa, Nani.
| Match stats provided by www.ronaldo7.net
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|---|---|---|
England
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vs
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Portugal
|
1 |
Goals |
0 |
6 |
Shots |
5 |
4 |
Shots on goal |
0 |
2 |
Corner kicks |
2 |
15 |
Fouls commited |
7 |
0 |
Yellow cards |
0 |
0 |
Red cards |
0 |
58% |
Ball possession |
42% |
Cristiano Ronaldo next game with Portugal is a friendly international on June 8 of 2016, against Estonia. You can watch Juventus live stream, Portugal vs Estonia, Costa Rica vs Paraguay, France vs Scotland, USA vs Colombia, and Germany vs Hungary, all matches provided from our live soccer stream game pages.
Portugal next game:
Portugal vs Estonia kick-off time (08-06-2016):
Beijing (China) | UTC/GMT+8: 02:45
Jakarta (Indonesia) | UTC/GMT+7: 01:45
India (New Delhi) | UTC/GMT+5.30: 00:15
Spain (Madrid) | UTC/GMT+2: 20:45
Portugal and England (Lisbon/London) | UTC/GMT+1: 19:45
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) | UTC/GMT-3: 15:45
New York (United States) | UTC/GMT-4: 14:45
Los Angeles (United States) | UTC/GMT-7: 11:45
Sources: ronaldo7.net / bbc.com / scotsman.com / theguardian.com
