THE BALL – Rui Jorge “atypical” European perspective (U21)

With his passport stamped for the UEFA European Under-21 Championship, Rui Jorge talked about a competition that will take place in Hungary and Slovenia in a different format: the group stage will take place between 24 and 31 March 2021. The winners of the i groups and runners-up move on to the knockout stage between May 31 and June 6.

“It’s an unknown quantity for all of us. It will be an unusual situation for the U21s, but we will have time to think about it. We know it will not be like in previous years, it will arrive, it will concentrate on Sunday and, in the end, it will play a qualifying match against one of the best European teams on Thursday, in the middle of the championships. But it is the opportunity we have to compete and we will do it with pride », said the coach after the triumph over Cyprus (2-1) which marked the qualification.

«We conceded a goal, which made the task more difficult. Mentally it’s not easy to suffer when you have the ambition to win a match to compete for the first place in the group, but I think we ended up being able to turn around “, he analyzed, considering suffering, but precisely the victory of Quinas’s team:

– The tight result can give the feeling that the game has been balanced. The game was not balanced. We completely dominated the game, but we weren’t effective. The result is quite right and also sins for poor.

The duel with the Netherlands follows to close the qualifications and decide the first place in the group: “We are in a series of matches without losing any points if we want to compete for that first place because our opponent made an absolutely extraordinary qualification, but we wanted really get to this last match with the possibility of being first in the group ».

“They’ve had a brilliant journey. In attack, they are at an exceptional level, they have won 2-0 against Norway and have scored at least four goals in other games, including with us. So they did a lot to deserve the first place and we will try to do a lot to get them out », he concluded.