Who saw you and who sees you.
After a strong victory against the Faroe Islands (4-0), but without playing well, as the coach himself admitted, the under-21 team won again today without difficulty, but, to the impressive result, they added a great performance.
Portugal beat Croatia 5-1, at the São Luís Stadium, in Faro, in an important game in the qualifying rounds for the 2025 European Championship.
What about those first 25 minutes? How do you describe a game in which, in such a short period, there were five goals? You read that right: five.
Portugal entered full throttle. For those who saw Thursday’s match against the Faroe Islands, the difference was abysmal.
In that game, against a theoretically weaker opponent, Rui Jorge’s men were, essentially during the first half, a predictable, unaggressive and unwilling team. Perhaps the alert served as an example.
In the 3rd minute, the team took the lead, with a goal from Fábio Silva, after a shot from Pedro Santos that hit both the post and the bar.
Portugal didn’t take their foot off the accelerator and quickly reached second. Pedro Santos – what a performance from Benfica’s young midfielder – took advantage of a lack of attention from the Croatian defense and shot into the back of the net, with only Cavlina in front.
11 minutes had been played and what seemed difficult became increasingly easier: beating Croatia.
However, in the first approach to the area, Skocic’s team managed to reduce it. Samuel Soares, who was training with the A team last week due to Diogo Costa’s injury, was reckless and took a penalty for a foul on Perkovic.
With all his class, Ljubicic scored for Croatia, on a penalty panenka.
The idea crossed everyone’s mind that Portugal’s great entry into the game had disappeared.
But, in a luxurious first half, the young Portuguese knew how to react and scored two more: Pedro Santos, in the 23rd minute, made it 3-1 and, just two minutes later, Paulo Bernardo increased the advantage.
In the second half, Portugal didn’t press as much, but continued to dominate the match on their own. pleasure.
Fábio Silva still had time to score twice, converting a penalty that he himself won, in the 63rd minute.
Portugal leaves this double round in the Algarve with two wins and six points. The last three matches, against Croatia, Faroe Islands and Andorra, will all be played away from home and will be decisive.
For now, the team occupies 1st place, with 18 points and 7 games, and everything seems well on track to be present in the finals in Slovakia.
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