Denmark 2 – 1 Portugal, Playoff Bound.

October 11th, 2011 | by: Paulo |

Well, two years later and here we are again. Although instead of being relieved of making the playoffs, we are dreading it this time around. Portugal definitely limped (literally) to the finish line of this Euro 2012 Qualifying campaign, but there appears to be one more final stretch.

Player Ratings

Rui Particio: 7/10- Couldn’t really fault him on either goals and made some terrific saves to keep us in the game.

Joao Periera: 5/10- Was beat one on one right on the edge of the box by Krohn Delhi that scored Denmark’s first goal. Not a good performance at all from Joao. He passed well out of the back though.

Rolando: 4/10- Caught out of position a few times and a hit a bunch of poor passes out of the back. It really pissed me off that it was he who deflected the first goal by Denmark into the corner of the net, it wasn’t his fault, but it was just the icing on the cake. I hope Pepe gets healthy.

Bruno Alves: 3/10- Was no where near where he should have been when Denmark scored their second. He was better in the air, but him and Rolando form an absolutely horrible partnership. He has always played pretty good when paired with Pepe or Carvalho, but his form has noticeably dipped recently.

Eliseu: 3/10- Just as bad defensively, and no where near as good offensively as the last game. Well beaten on the second goal, and unless there are an abundance of injuries again, he has no place in the side. Romedahl just ran right past him when he set up Bedtner.

Martins: 4/10- Had the best opportunities to score and did nothing with them. Also didn’t sync well at all with Meireles or Moutinho. He needs to be replaced and fast.

Meireles: 4/10- Poor performance by Raul. Wasted that wide open shot right on the 6 yard box at the end, and didn’t do anything really to help the team out in the offensive third.

Moutinho: 5/10- Had a few nice tackles, but once again his passing was off and he didn’t have any creative touches. He never seemed to have time to pick his passes.

Nani: 6/10- Nani looked like he was the only player capable of producing offense for Portugal. He drifted more inside as the game went on, but still came up with little results. He made some nice runs down the wing though.

Ronaldo: 7/10- Apparently he was hampered by the injury e picked up earlier in training, but what a masterpiece of a goal. Just a brilliant free kick. But other than that his touch was off and he tried way too many backheals that downright failed. Like Nani, he troubled to find space to get shots off. When Quaresma came on he moved to the middle next to Postiga, but still couldn’t find his groove.

Postiga: 5/10- Definitely a lack of service so you can’t fault him for that. But I think he could have done better to come back to the ball and hold up play better or make a neat turn towards goal, but it was not to be.

Subs

Quaresma: 4/10- Not too sure why he played left wing/back, but he didn’t contribute all that much. After Ronaldo scored and we were pressuring again he completely botched the cross when we had everyone in the box and it stood to be our last chance.

Nuno Gomes: 3/10- Didn’t have any effect on the game. I think he is passed international football at this stage (He makes me think Liedson is too). He has no speed or acceleration at all to create anything on his own, that’s the main problem, especially when there is a lack of service from the midfield.

Miguel Veloso: 5/10- Did a better job defending than Eliseu, but we all know that he is not a left back. Can he become the full time defensive midfielder?

We have some real problems on our hands. Against more athletic and organized teams, our midfield does not stand a chance right now of breaking down any top defense. We definitely need some creativity and Bento has no choice but to try Coentrao or Danny in the midfield with Meireles and Moutinho. Coentrao and Danny are better passers and much more dangerous all around than Martins, Veloso, and Micael combined. This has to be the game that convinces Bento to try Danny, it just has to be. Even if he switches to a 4-2-3-1, it will give us more space out wide if defenses have to watch Danny right behind our striker.

It just never seemed like we had a calm possession of the ball deep in Denmark’s half. Never did our midfielders pick out the diagonal runs by our forwards. They just tried to force it through the middle or hit a long cross and pray. Also, the counter attack was unusually dull tonight. We never got a really good goal scoring chance, and if it wasn’t for Ronaldo’s brilliant goal we would have been embarrassingly shut out.

I am still not all that concerned with defense as long as we get fit and Bento comes to his senses. Carvalho and Bosingwa need to return to the squad now. I will be honest that I didn’t think we would miss Carvalho that much with Alves taking over, but I was soooo wrong. Carvalho is a smarter defender and better passer than Alves. I still think Bosingwa can play better at right back than Periera if he is in good form. As long as Pepe and Coentrao are healthy, we have a fighting chance.

We need to give younger strikers the chance on the senior national team. I don’t care if it is Orlando Sa, Rudy, or Wilson Eduardo or whoever, but they need to be featured over Nuno Gomes. I hope Hugo Almeida will come back and regain his old form, but there is no reason not to give these younger guys a chance in a few upcoming friendlies. I feel that the squad could really use a bit of freshness.

Denmark kicked our ass, but it is up to Bento on how our guys bounce back. This could be the wake up call our team needed, and better now than in the playoffs or the start of the tourney. It looks like we will be playing either the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Turkey or Estonia. There should be quite a few interesting match ups. The Playoff Draw is Thursday so we will know then. Other than that, I would not panic just yet, we will return to the Portugal of old once we get healthy, and winning will ensue hopefully. We need to keep our heads held high and put in two good matches next month. Forca Portugal.

Portugal World Cup Blog RSS Feed

Comments

By Paulo | October 12th, 2011 at 9:17 am

CORRECTION: It appears the seeded playoff teams are Portugal, Ireland, Croatia, and Czech Republic. We could play Turkey, Estonia, Bosnia Herzegovenia, or Montenegro.

By Ivan | October 12th, 2011 at 9:55 am

I don’t fear any of those teams (though Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina would be the toughest choices; but I would prefer facing them so as to keep some sense of reality of Portugal’s actual strength – if we play Estonia or Montenegro, no good performance will be able to step up our game against top sides), Paulo, as long as Portugal doesn’t play as crap as yesterday. Bento needs to realize we may fail to qualify for the first time in 14 years if Portugal plays anything like in Copenhagen. The defense was a horror, the midfield didn’t press high and the attack created little, the few chances we had were wasted. Had not Ronaldo scored from that freekick, and we would be shut-out for the first time in history against Denmark.
It’s amazing how 2 years ago, under freaking Queiroz and in the same stadium, we played much better and actually outplayed Denmark for most of the game, even if the result was a mere 1-1 draw. I would have welcomed it yesterday.

Let this be the lowest point of Paulo Bento’s management. He gotta grow a brain and call the right players (WTF at Ricardo Costa, Amorim, João Pereira?), even if some of the key players were injured. So far he seems clueless and not able to manage the team after the first year in charge, when the sole post-Queiroz motivation was enough to bring results. But no longer.

Sorry for this rant. But I really wanted Portugal to win the group, and feel sad because we had it in our hands. It’s just no fun when top teams and other not even such enjoy qualifying directly, while we can’t win a qualifying group since 2005 and are left to yet another play-offs. Yes, we improved our record against direct opponents since the qualifying for the Euro 2008 and WC 2010, but we still finish in 2nd place. I have no adjectives left to describe this junk. I hope for a quick turn-around in the squad.

Posted from Portugal

By msudzi | October 12th, 2011 at 10:01 am

Figured only 2 comments were are you chop fans who are you going to blame it on now like always the coaches the refs. How about the size of the mellons in between thier legs. The only time Portugal has actually done something was in 2004 when they had a strong defense. you can talk about Ronaldo and all the other so called starts but woithout a strong defense that is not to make tough tackles you will never beat the stronger and taller teams which Portugal always has trouble with ie Poland, norway< Denmark and of cource always ITaly.

Posted from United States

By Ivan | October 12th, 2011 at 10:08 am

msudzi, huh, a troll here already?

Yes, there are reasons for this defeat and you clearly sound ignorant with your pathetic comment. Read the article, my comment and others not written by me. Denmark played well, no doubt, but there were many other reasons for the loss. If you don’t know anything about our situation and just want to insult, get lost. Finally, have a good day. Cheers.

Posted from Portugal

By Ivan | October 12th, 2011 at 8:45 pm

The 2 first Portugal’s games in the qualifying games are largely at fault for us finishing 2nd in the group. We pretty much did the job at home (wins over Denmark and Norway) and could have won the group even with a loss in Denmark, had Portugal had an actual manager in September, by beating Cyprus and drawing in Norway.
We’re not really at fault for an otherwise excellent Denmark campaign in the qualifiers. Still gutted at the last result and performance.

Like Paulo said, this MUST be the wake-up call for the entire squad. We’ll have the play-offs drawn at noon, hopefully we pick a strong-decent side (meaning everyone besides Estonia). Otherwise the team won’t experience any growth in the quality of the game.

Posted from Portugal

By João | October 13th, 2011 at 6:14 am

Bosnia again… ****

Posted from Netherlands

By Ivan | October 13th, 2011 at 7:01 am

Paulo Bento has reasons to be apprehensive. Bosnia’ll not play as bad as last time in the play-offs, our defense needs to strengthen urgently and the performance must go up in these 2 games.

Posted from Portugal

By Paulo | October 13th, 2011 at 9:39 am

A titanic playoff. We will come out of it stronger if we are victorious.

By ahmad | October 13th, 2011 at 9:39 am

to tell u truth … i don’t know what to expect from the NT anymore…. i do have faith but at the same time i am being realistic…. even if we decimate Bosnia, we still did it after failing to achieve what should have been a relatively easy job given the group we were in.
i don’t want to compare Portugal to the other major teams in Europe, but i will compare this Portugal to previous Portugal and may i add that the Portugal of 2006 was way better than the one we have now. Ronaldo cannot and will not carry this team on his own, we need extremely strong and witty midfielders (which i think we have) and most importantly defenders(which we greatly lack – again Bento, Quaresma as LB??? you have got to be kidding me)
i will be supporting the team till my breath runs out this November but i cannot have any good expectations with Bento still have troubles with crucial and great defenders that we so desperately need… at first i admit i was Bento’s number one supporter concerning the Ricardo case, but now i must admit … he went overboard and he must fix things, even if he has to beg for Carvalho to get back (i know things won’t go that far)…. the National Team and it’s unity is more important than any personal conflicts.

Posted from Russian Federation

By ahmad | October 13th, 2011 at 1:20 pm

the good thing is that the second leg will be on home soil…. so maybe we can use the home advantage in case we lost the first match….

By Tina | October 13th, 2011 at 8:40 pm

This team is filled with talented players yet Bento doesn’t know how to use them. We NEED to win both games against B-H if we want to redeem ourselves. AND we need to look good doing it. Everyone complained yesterday on how Ronaldo didn’t do anything last night and he was just being frustrated, but again, you CANNOT build a team around one player, no matter how good that player is. Portugal needs to call up the good players, needs to fix up the line-up and needs to work towards a common goal. We are talented enough to fight for Euro 2012, we just need the coach who can take us there.

By ahmad | October 14th, 2011 at 6:05 am

Ronaldo played whilst being injured, that alone to me proves that Ronaldo did the very best he could for the team, he played below par but what more can u expect from someone who is injured?? ….. and guys, are the rumors about murinho “maybe” coaching the NT in november true??

Posted from Lebanon

By Ivan | October 14th, 2011 at 7:23 am

Guys, it’s in portuguese blood to sing praises when the team wins and call it “the worst management, performance and f***-up ever possible” when a negative result comes up. A few days have passed since the dissapointment, but let’s carry on. I was like that too at the matchday too, but more because we lost a golden opportunity to win the group and all the other top (and not so) nations qualified from the 1st place, unlike us. Let’s also not forget that Portugal would have finished in 1st place had we defeated Cyprus at home and drew in Norway with a proper manager in September 2010.

Let’s not call names on Paulo Bento just because he lost 1 (yes, one!) official game after 5 straight wins. I certainly wanted direct qualification too, but these bad performances happen. IF Paulo Bento fails in the play-offs, then yes, ABSOLUTELY he should be sacked. But right now let’s chill out. I just like how suddenly PB went from brilliant to opaque.

Posted from Portugal

By Ivan | October 14th, 2011 at 7:26 am

@ahmad, of course not, Mourinho won’t leave Real Madrid without more major titles under the belt! And even if he does, there’s no telling he’ll manage the NT. Judging by his past interviews, he’ll manage some more top european clubs, before managing the NT at the end of his career.

Posted from Portugal

By João | October 14th, 2011 at 11:01 am

@Ivan;

Bento may have lost only one official match but I think you’re conveniently ignoring is how we lost against Denmark: not the typical we were on top of things and failed to score no: we were utterly outplayed.
That 2-1 scoreline is really flattering for Portugal, flattering because Portugal didn’t really deserve that one goal and Denmark deserved more then two goals. 3-0 would have been a fairer result.
And that 5 straight wins will mean nothing if we fail to qualify, indeed one week ago we looked closer to qualifying than we do now.

Posted from Netherlands

By Ivan | October 14th, 2011 at 11:38 am

I’m aware of that, and no, I didn’t ignore that we were on a very comfortable position, we just needed a draw to qualify directly, etc. You can still read that in the post you’re answering to.

Not saying that my confidence on PB is high right now, he should have prepared the team tactically and mentally better and called Bosingwa to reinforce the backline, but it may end up being just 1 fail. I don’t know if Paulo Bento being sacked would be the best option right now (after all, he himself started well with few time to train), but I think it’s not smart to send him packing after 1 dissapointing loss. There are still the play-offs for him to redeem himself and the team somewhat.

Posted from Portugal

By Ivan | October 14th, 2011 at 11:59 am

On top of that, Selecção was missing key players like Pepe, Coentrão, Danny and even Sílvio (even if he isn’t that good). Not saying that they’re the entire reason Portugal failed to some extent against Iceland and completely against Denmark, but I think they definitely contributed to Portugal having weaker games at all levels of the field this month.

Posted from Portugal

By ahmad | October 14th, 2011 at 12:42 pm

Bento indeed did lose one match, but don’t forget my friends that the teams he went up against were either mediocre or less … cyprus, iceland, norway and such teams are supposed to be guaranteed 6 points no matter what formation we play. We have so much better players in every freakin position… all we need is the right tactics. now denmark is better than the three teams mentioned above, but come on do we really have to talk about how cool it would’ve been to draw with them?? we should’ve won every game until we had guaranteed direct qualification and only then experiment with players and losing a game or two wont matter then. Bento may have lost one match but don’t forget that our defense took alot of goal under his charge, his first 2 matches in which portugal won 3-1 we ended up conceding a goal in each game (just stating that a clean sheet under bento’s reign as coach to me was an achievement by itself).
he always made mistakes in terms of defensive choices, and he never seemed to learn from them. somebody needs to get that guy’s head straight… i dont want him out because offensively he’s really good… at least way better than CQ

Posted from Lebanon

By Alex | October 17th, 2011 at 1:34 pm

I think Nuno Gomes’ rating is a bit harsh. He had little-no service on the ball and when he got a touch it was to set up Meireles from 6 yards, who should have atleast hit the target, nevermind scored.

What I’ve come to realize is we really need Carvalho and Bosingwa back. The defence was extremely poor. Also the midfield must be changed. Either Danny or Coentrao should be moved there replacing Martins.

As for striker, Postiga scored an amazing goal this past weekend and should start unless there is significant height differences in which Almeida would take over and I still believe Nuno can make a great impact as a substitute.

Posted from Canada

By bOSNIAN prIDE | October 18th, 2011 at 10:04 am

i CAN’T WAIT TO PLAY YOU GUYS, ALTHOUGH i’M nOT LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT FOWL ODER OF COD FISH THAT ACCOMPANIES YOU GUYS. yOUR TEAM IS GOING TO FOLD QUICKER THAN YOU ARMIES DID IN ANGOLA AND gOA VS THE GREAT FIGHTING NATION OF gANDI iNDIA. yOU GUYS SHORT OF LOOK BOSNIAN ARE YOU SURE YOU DON’T HAVE A LIITLE MUSLIM BLOOD, THEN AGAIN YOU LOOK MORE LIKE CIGANOS.

Posted from United States

By ahmad | October 20th, 2011 at 5:35 pm

what the fuck is with you and this ignorant post? just fuck off.

By Ivan | October 30th, 2011 at 6:36 am

Just read that Bosingwa might have received a preliminary call-up by Paulo Bento… I know it might be just a rumor, but I really hope it’s true, and if it is, then I want him to make into the final November call-ups.

But I won’t get my hopes high just yet.

Posted from Portugal

By Jon | October 30th, 2011 at 10:18 am

I understand why so many people are excited to see Bosingwa return, but is he really better than Joao Pereira? Bosingwa is better at going forward, but his defending is absolutely terrible. I’ve watched him play many times this season for Chelsea. Against crappy teams, he has the freedom to attack all he likes and he’s never tested defensively, but against good teams like Arsenal yesterday, he is a disaster.

Joao Pereira may not be as much as a threat going forward, but he is much more reliable than Bosingwa. Who would you rather start against Spain, Germany, or Holland? Bosingwa or Pereira. If you guys remember, Joao Pereira was brilliant against Spain in the 4-0 thrashing and he has been an important part of Sporting’s recent rise in form.

By João | November 4th, 2011 at 7:52 am

The squad has been selected for the upcoming play-off:

Goalkeepers: Beto, Eduardo, Rui Patrício.

Defenders: Bruno Alves, Pepe, Rolando, Sereno, Coentrão, João Pereira, Sílvio.

Midfielders: Carlos Martins, João Moutinho, Miguel Veloso, Raúl Meireles, Rúben Amorim, Rúben Micael.

Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Danny, Hugo Almeida, Hélder Postiga, Nani, Nuno Gomes, Quaresma.

Remind me again why Bento picked Carlos Martins besides being a former Sporting player.

Posted from Netherlands

By Ivan | November 4th, 2011 at 1:24 pm

@João, probably because the attack got worse in the Denmark game after he was subbed. Though I didn’t like him missing a good chance to score a goal and making another shot from outside the box straight at the keeper.

Posted from Portugal

Comments are closed