[ad_1]
For Croatia, Tuesday’s match against Portugal is fundamental, deciding to remain in League A of the League of Nations. Matches in points, head to head and goal difference in all group matches against Sweden, the Croatians have a slight advantage for scoring more goals (7v3). In other words, if they get the same results today (for example two draws to zero, or two wins for 3-1) it will be the Croatians who will continue in League A.
For Portugal, this is a rare case of an official game where there are no accounts, good or bad, to make. After Saturday’s defeat, Portugal will finish in 2nd place in the group, unable to defend the inaugural League of Nations title in the final four next October.
Despite that, it won’t be a night of experimentation, Fernando Santos warned – the weight of the defeat against France took away the environment for this to happen.
“If we had won [teria garantido já o apuramento], it was natural for us to take advantage of it, always with respect to the match, the flag we represent, the opponent and also the other opponent in this group. We should have been like ourselves but it was possible that some changes could happen just to observe. In this case there will be some, but not for this, but for the number of games the players have. These are changes to keep the team strong, cohesive and with this ability to win the game ”, the national team coach explained yesterday.
After all, after the chorus of criticism of what Portugal (not) did against France, an answer is imperative. «We also have objectives, that of serving the national team and that of any match, which is to fight to win. And we know that if we facilitate, if we repeat the lack of aggression and objectivity, we will have many difficulties in achieving this goal ».
Here are the likely eleven years of Portugal: Rui Patrício; Nélson Semedo, Rúben Dias, José Fonte and Mário Rui; João Moutinho, Rúben Neves and William Carvalho; Bernardo Silva, Cristiano Ronaldo and Diogo Jota.
.
[ad_2]
Source link
