Albania
Austria
Belgium
Bosnia
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
England
France
Germany
Greece
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Scotland
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Ukraine
Wales
World
Portugal
Bosnia Herzegovina – Portugal : Match Preview
Comments(32)
November, 18, 2009
Bilino Polje Stadium, Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina
19:45 Lisbon, London; 14:45 New York; 20:45 Zenica
24 hours to go for the all deciding match at Zenica.
Bosnia Herzegovina needs to come back from the marginal defeat picked up last Saturday in Lisbon and win by a margin of 2 goals. Portugal needs to pick up their defensive act if Eduardo’s net is to remain unviolated. All outcomes are possible. This game is definitely not for the faint of hart.
If the 4,000 Bosnian supporters at the Estádio da Luz are any example to go by then the 15,000 that will fill up the Bilino Polje Stadium are sure to keep noise decibels at peek levels. Every single player in our squad is used to packed hostile stadiums with well over 15,000 so I expect it won’t hinder our performance. It will however most likely boost BH confidence levels.
Portugal is without starting XI players Cristiano Ronaldo, José Bosingwa and Pedro Mendes due to injury. They were missed last game. To an extent that can only be fully measured after this one. On the bright side Bruno Alves and Deco recovered from minor injuries picked up during Saturday’s game.
Bosnia Herzegovina lost Spahic, Rahimic and Muratovic to yellow cards during the first game. While the first two are difficult to replace, Muratovic’s absence in exchange for 19 year old Pjanic is not good news. Quite the opposite. While stifling Bosnian playmaker Misimovic proved an easy enough task (read his interresting interview), adding Pjanic to this equation is a completely different matter. One I’m confident our lads are up to and will make for an interesting duel to watch.
As with the first game the team remains intact:
Goal-keepers:
Hilário (Chelsea)
Eduardo (Braga)
Rui Patrício (Sporting)
Defense:
Miguel (Valencia)
Bruno Alves (Porto)
Paulo Ferreira (Chelsea)
Pepe (Real Madrid)
Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea)
Rolando (Porto)
Ricardo Costa (Wolfsburg)
Midfield:
Deco (Chelsea)
Duda (Malaga)
João Moutinho (Sporting)
Miguel Veloso (Sporting)
Raúl Meireles (Porto)
Tiago (Juventus)
Fábio Coentrão (Benfica)
Offense:
Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
Liedson (Sporting)
Nani (Manchester Utd)
Simão Sabrosa (Atlético Madrid)
Edinho (Malaga CF)
Hugo Almeida (Werder Bremen)
Here is my recipe for success:
————– Eduardo —————
Miguel — Carvalho — Alves — Veloso
—————- Pepe —————-
———- Meireles —- Deco ———
Simão ——— Liedson ———- Nani
The full backs are as usual the biggest source of debate. Paulo Ferreira is most likely to keep his spot although some newspapers here in Portugal report Veloso a likely candidate to replace Duda. Good news.
This game will probably be played in counter-attack. We can’t afford the amount of missed passes we had during Saturday’s game. Bosnia’s need to score will certainly open up their defense and with the likes of Simão, Nani and Liedson I’m way more confident then before. Add to that the loss of Spahic to their side and I can already sense an eminent goal and the game hasn’t even started.
An interesting article in Record newspaper reported Portuguese players to have run an impressive 8,5Km more then Bosnian players. Liedson being the only one passing the 10Km mark. Interesting stuff. It goes to show our lads worked harder for the end result.
Good luck to all. May the best team win.
FORÇA PORTUGAL!!!!!!!!!!
Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 32 comments.
Read the rest of the comments
The last goal Ronaldo scored in an official match for Portugal was over a year ago! 11th of June 2008, against the Czech Republic at the Euro 2008! During these qualifiers he didn’t score a single goal. He did score a penalty during a friendly against Finland in a friendly last… February.
I have faith he will redefine “World-Class” at the next world-cup. Yes. Yes. I’m THAT confident we’ll overcome our current obstacle.
Posted from 
Portugal
you should be confident .. we have 4 of our starters out AND you have 3 brazilians on your team .. we all know brazilians are the best in the world ..
Posted from 
United States
And when they play for Portugal they get even better! 
We have 3 of our starters out so only now did you take the upper lower hand.
Posted from Portugal
All i can say is Forca Portugal!!! We are with you and have faith!
Posted from 
Canada
JUST ONE MORE GAME!!
FORÇA PORTUGAL!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t like that CR9’s tendency to go down at the slightest contact seems to have rubbed off on the entire portugal team. They were dropping to the ground on attack faster than any team I have seen in a while. Shameful for such a talented squad. Please play football the right way.
couldnt agree more with you Jon .. it was disgusting to watch them go down so easy
Posted from United States
Sorry Bosnians, but you’ll loose this one…unfortunately for you, you were unfortunate in the Playoff…there were weaker teams for you to come like ukraine, ireland or even greece in the draw but Portugal is not weak. You’re playing against the 9nth best team in the world, and you’re not even the 40th…
So, you know that uefa doesnt allow lower teams to beat best teams so often, so you’ll loose this one. Portugal is needed in the world cup…because it plays some of the most attractive football in the world.
Dont come with that mentallity bullshit…you dont know nothing about Portugal’s history so dont come with nationalistic stupidity. Respect your oponent as a country and as a culture and you shall be respected. We want to win as much as you want and we’ll leave blood in the field for that.
Plus just watch the difference of quality between the two teams…it’s completely unarguable that Portugal is WAY better. Then talk about international experience and there we can even discuss less.
The result will be 2-1 for bosnia…but Portugal will prevale with away goal…do you really think that we cant score goals in your country? Just wait and see =).
Good luck,
FORÇA PORTUGAL!
I’m not going to be a hypocrite and pretend I don’t notice the increase in easy-falling-at-the-slightest-touch the team has come to do since CR9 came on the scene. If you think I’m happy with it… think again. Everybody loves the player that despite getting fouled stays on his feet to allow the play to continue. No stoppage time. No discussion on whether it was or not a foul. Just continued play. And possibly even a goal or great chance in the making. A lot better then a whistle blowing putting everybody on hold until the game gets some rhythm again. But… there is always a but… we are talking about actual, true, real, honest-to-god faults FFS! So the player decided to not carry on because at the time a free-kick seemed like the best possible way to get the pretended end result.. TO SCORE! CR9 more then makes up for any easy-falling presenting the public with moments of true soccer geniality. NONE of the faults the ref called were unjustified in the 1st leg. NONE. Ok so Nani and Liedson did fall to easily on 2 or 3 occasions. They were still fouled. Go bark up the defenders tree for once! If they (Bosnian defenders in this case) know they are up against a technically superior adversary that knows how to exploit every aspect of the game then they had better grow some brains and act accordingly.
Posted from Portugal
Watching the 2nd leg portugese are going down like faggots on cocks. Just saw nani make an extra special dive even for a portugese player, but what can you expect form these gypsys snakes in the grass. We will just have to compensate and deal with it.
Posted from Canada
@ Haris….. saw some quality scuba from Bosnia as well buddy.
Well that was quite insipid, from both teams. Our passing is shit but we still had the best opportunity to score. We are trying to defend the 1-0 result, which isnt sitting easy with me. And the less said about the pitch the better!
1-0.
=]]]
We’re going to S.Africa!!!
Posted from 
United Kingdom
Awful first half, didn’t see much of the 2nd half (poor streams) glad to see Portugal going to South Africa.
As for Bosnia hope to see you guys in Euro 2012.
Let me be the first to say Congratulations! You were the better team. Good luck in South Africa.
now words speak up who is better tem lol lol no more say
Posted from Canada
haris you are a fucking idiot lol lol ass
Posted from Canada
haris you suck boy
Posted from Canada
YAY we qualified at last!!
I hope Bosnia get’s punished because of their horrible fans.
1st half was terrible, 2nd half we played a bit more. Didnt see much of Bosnia tho, even tho they had some of their players out, they really didnt threaten that much. They looked more dangerous in Portugal. Was probably cause our pitch was better. Anys bring on the draw on the 4th Dec(I think), hope Portugal play in Cape Town cause I have 3 tickets for the group games.
Forca Portugal!!
yay! what relief!
portugal playes better away than home
Posted from Canada
Obrigado Portugal!!!
India vs New Zealand live streaming ODI || India vs New Zealand live streaming online cricket video at Colombo (RPS), Compaq Cup
http://live-t20online.blogspot.com/2009/09/india-vs-new-zealand-live-streaming-odi.html
Posted from 
Bangladesh
Comments are closed
MORE EUROPE BLOGS
CATEGORIES & ARCHIVES
actually i wouldnt mind watching Ronaldo (I have his jersey by the way) but I cant remember the last time he scored a goal for Portugal .. Him and Ibrahimovic just dont play well for their national teams
Posted from
United States