The Portuguese women’s soccer coach, Francisco Neto, assumed, this Monday, that the set-piece defense was the team’s “Achilles’ heel” in the final phase of the England Eurocup 2022, promising to try to correct the problem.
In recent years we haven’t conceded goals from set pieces for a long time. At the moment we are not here, something is not right, and as the leader of this process I have to assume it and correct it for what is to come”, he said, upon arrival from Manchester at the Humberto Delgado International Airport in Lisbon.
Portugal was beaten this Sunday (5-0) by the second best team in the world, Sweden, in the final of group C of the English tournament, with four more goals from set piecesafter the three suffered in the first two games, respectively, a draw (2-2) against Switzerland and a defeat (3-2) against the current European champion, the Netherlands.
It’s a mix of everything, positioning, concentration, and we’re going to have to grow in that aspect,” continued the coach, noting that the “quinas” team didn’t suffer “any offensive organizational goals from the opponents,” having created “chances ( of goal) with all teams, scoring two of them.
The Portuguese team returns to the competition visiting Serbia and hosting Turkey, on September 2 and 6, respectively, in qualifying group H for the 2023 Australia/New Zealand World Cup.
We believed and dreamed of the quarterfinals, but we have to be super proud. unfortunately yesterday [domingo] It didn’t turn out the way we wanted, but nothing erases how well we did and the football we showed was not a day for Portugal”, lamented Benfica striker Jéssica Silva.
The “versatile” Sporting player Ana Borges, who broke Carla Couto’s record for international matches (145), now totaling 147, declared that “I traded international matches for more finals”although she admits that she is “very proud”, because “it is a great pleasure to represent the country”.
The forward of Sporting de Braga Carolina Mendes stressed that the evolution of this team was “notorious”, but confessed that the match the day before left the team with a “bitter taste”.
“We cannot be Portugal and impose our football”, he concluded.
Source: Observadora
