Portuguese Football in English
It was everything. Infuriating, dramatic, scarcely believable at times, but Portugal managed to scrape through Group F with three draws, a feat that would not have been possible under the old Euro format.
And now, Croatia. But before we make any more predictions that turn out to be completely false, we need to assess the best and the worst of our Group F tribulations. Only then can we consider the way ahead.
After the emotional anguish of Portugal's 3-3 draw against Hungary, PortuGOAL.net gained some inside perspective from the players and Hungary manager, Bernd Storck.
Portugal's first goalscorer, Nani, and Jose Fonte were both on-hand to describe the incredible encounter.
Portugal 3-3 Hungary
Portugal are still alive at Euro 2016... just.
Three times the Seleção fell behind, as Zoltan Gera and Dzudzsak (twice) scored for Hungary, and three times Portugal came back through Nani and captain Cristiano Ronaldo (twice).
The Seleção finish third in Group F and now travel to Lens in north France to play Croatia in the last-16 match.
A win against high-flying Hungary will guarantee Portugal’s presence in the knockout stages of Euro 2016. And that is certainly not too much to ask from Fernando Santos and his men.
Nevertheless, despite an improved display against Austria, Santos may have to do some further tinkering to his lineup, lest Portugal is to be prematurely ousted from the tournament.
For the game against Austria, the stone-faced manager made two changes. He replaced Danilo with William Carvalho and brought in Ricardo Quaresma for João Mario. Both changes aimed to correct a number of issues that limited the Portuguese against Iceland.
I’ll be honest and admit that I had envisioned the writing of this piece going a little differently. By this point in the tournament, I had hoped to be focusing more on our knockout round opponents and gushing about individual performances as Portugal cruised through Group F.
The “gods of football” saw fit to deny that projection from materializing.
