And game 16, it still hasn’t happened: Portugal is still unable to beat Spain in Spanish territory. The National Team already has 10 losses and six draws, and this Thursday’s match was also the fifth consecutive draw between the two teams. The Portuguese team has thus gone six games undefeated against the Spanish, since the last defeat was already in the 2010 World Cup, more than a decade ago.
While Gavi was bearing fruit, Ricardo entered to show that he prefers Horta (the Spain-Portugal chronicle)
As for the Nations League, Portugal remains undefeated away from home after six games. With this tie the National Team is already on a par with Spain in Group 2 of League A of the competition, with one point won, with the Czech Republic in the lead by beating Switzerland in Prague also tonight.
After the final whistle, Fernando Santos justified one of the night’s news: the fact that Cristiano Ronaldo was not a starter. “People often ask why he is a starter, it is the million dollar question. I understood that, for this game, it was better to use the players that I used. It was a technical and tactical option for this game, it seemed to us the best solution for the way we wanted to play and approach the game. It has nothing to do with the quality of Cristiano, that is not even questioned. There are moments in the game where we need to think differently. We believed that, in the second half, I could come in and solve the match”, said the national coach, who then analyzed the team’s performance.
The last 6 games between the 2 teams in ???????? all ended in a tie:
1979: 1-1
1911: 1-1
1994: 2-2
2002: 1-1
2021: 0-0
2022: 1-1⚠The last match that did not end in a draw was in 1958: 1-0 to ????????? in preparation game pic.twitter.com/ensWTNV94q
— playmakerstats (@playmaker_EN) June 2, 2022
“The match had balanced phases and less balanced phases, partly also because of our responsibility, because we lacked some patience in moving the ball. We played too much for the goalkeeper and then we always tried to go deep, with a lot of long ball and from behind, which gave the Spanish team an advantage. It gave them more possession of the ball. That’s what I tried to correct in the break and I think we got it in the second half”, added the coach.
Finally, Fernando Santos also commented on the substitutions he made, between Rúben Neves coming on at half-time and Ronaldo, Guedes, Horta and Matheus coming on in the second half. “I think we abused depth, mainly to get to the middle zone. We made very long pitches and that didn’t work for us. We also explored too much, in my opinion, the characteristics of Leão, who is a powerful player but, if he is always in that movement, he ends up not being able to produce what he can produce and has the ability to produce. Then it seemed to me that we had to have players with more corridors to take advantage of the central spaces, as is the case with Horta and Guedes, even to explore the bands. This worked, especially since he then allowed the entry of the wingers, as was the case with Cancelo. The team has several solutions”, fired the national coach.
Portugal has gone 6 games undefeated against Spain: the last Portuguese defeat against the Spanish team was in 2010, in the World Cup (0-1)
⚠This has been the only win for Spain against Portugal in the last 8 matches between both teams pic.twitter.com/iZd0ELqKMr
— playmakerstats (@playmaker_EN) June 2, 2022
Source: Observadora
