It was a painful end to Portugal’s World Cup 2022 campaign, and neither the coach Fernando Santos nor the players made any attempts to sugar-coat their huge disappointment after losing to Morocco in the quarter-finals.
While giving credit to Morocco, the underlying feeling was that of an opportunity lost. PortuGOAL rounds up the post-match reaction.
Fernando Santos, Portugal coach:
“They’re devastated in the changing room. I’d like to thank the Portuguese people and the support that reached us from Portugal. We were convinced, because of the way we were working, the joy, the motivation and the quality, that we could reach the final and give great happiness to the Portuguese people. We’re all devastated and frustrated that we didn’t do it.
“We needed a lot of creativity, to create one-on-ones, get past our opponents and give ourselves shooting opportunities. In some phases of the game we were passing it too deep. We lacked imagination, like we showed against Switzerland to break the lines. We didn’t do what we wanted, credit to Morocco too, but we had two or three goalscoring opportunities.
“In the last 10 minutes and in stoppage time we were extremely anxious, trying to get the ball wide and send in crosses. When we didn’t do that we created some chances, with one fantastic save from Félix’s shot. We’re devastated because we believed we could get to the final and win it.
“Morocco deserve credit, a lot of credit for their defensive organisation, the way they work for each other, their fight and the intensity of their game. Portugal found it tough to imprint our creativity.
“My future? I’m going to talk to the [FPF] president.”
 |
Bruno Fernandes, Portugal midfielder:
“We had the quality to go further, and the effort and commitment of the team deserved more. We’re disappointed, shaken and down. We missed an opportunity. We believed we had the ability to go deeper, regardless of whether it was Morocco, Argentina, Brazil or any other team we were playing.
“Today Morocco were better, they deserved it, they played well and we have to give them credit, but we had the quality to do more and go further.
“We are aware of what we did in this tournament and what we could have done. Now it’s time to go home, be with our families, recover mentally. This team will be back and ready to go again. We want to represent our country.”
Bernardo Silva, Portugal midfielder:
“It was a tough game against a very aggressive, very competitive team, as we’d seen throughout the tournament and in the match against Spain. In the first half we didn’t manage to break through their lines. In the second, a little in desperation, we gave everything we had to get to the semi-final, but it was a difficult game for us. We’re disappointed because we had a clear goal. We’re frustrated, disappointed.
“The Ronaldo noise? This is my third tournament, after a World Cup and a European Championship, and this is the best atmosphere I’ve experienced. The squad was more united and the truth is we believed it was possible to go far. We apologise to all the Portuguese people. We tried our best to represent our country as best we could, but today we didn’t get the job done.
“Morocco are in the semi-final because they deserve it. The same way that Morocco knocked out Belgium and Spain, now they’ve knocked out Portugal. It’s a team with a lot of value, forget about the names. We’re just sad that it’s not us who go through.”
 |
Rúben Dias, Portugal defender:
“There was a lot of time-wasting and breaking the rhythm of the game. We should have had a penalty in the first half, with Bruno. I haven’t seen the replay but it looked clear to us and it’s difficult to understand why it wasn’t awarded.
“We were fully aware we’d be facing a team that wasn’t at all easy; you could see that from their previous games and especially the match against Spain. We tried everything, we knew it would be a dangerous game, because they let us have the ball but it was a trap, because they were waiting for the moment to counter-attack. When they scored everything got even tougher, because they packed their defence even more and they began to have more space to counter.
“You can’t fault our attitude in terms of the attitude and commitment of everyone. Now we must look ahead.
“The Cristiano Ronaldo noise? Unfortunately there’s a natural tendency in our country, at these times, to try and hinder ourselves instead of uniting behind us. We were always united, ignoring what was being said. We joked about it because there was no other way to handle it.
“We gave everything here, unfortunately we weren’t better today, but we’ll take this experience on board and we are aware that we have a generation full of talent, with a lot of quality and a lot to give.”
By Tom Kundert
