There are days when you should not leave the house because everything that can go wrong, goes worse. In this case, Portugal had a day in which the only thing they gained was leaving home, in this case the hotel where you stay in San Juan during this World Cup, because everything that could go well, went better. And so it was, on a “blessed” day, that the National Team guaranteed the presence in the middle of the competition.
Portugal thrashes Chile and is in the quarterfinals of the Rink Hockey World Cup
By luck of the calendar itself, which in this particular case should be reviewed for a sporting truth, the team’s rival in the quarterfinals would come out of a match between the fourth and last group B, Mozambique (which lost to Argentina, Spain and Angola), with the first of one of the groups of a kind of 2nd Division, Germany, who won Andorra, Austria and Australia. The Germans managed to win 3-2 with a goal two minutes from time and after the Africans missed a penalty that could have turned the game around but they had a problem: another game followed, this time against Portugal.
A wall that left everything open: Pedro Henriques shines in the tie with Italy and Portugal depends on him for the leadership in the World Cup
His record with the National Team was no longer famous (39 defeats in 44 goals, 70-230 in goals, five goals in the last five matches), the fact of arriving with 50 minutes in the legs on the same day did not open the best prospects. Even so, even with these adversities, Germany knew how to fight well and offered resistance to Portugal, not being able to repeat what happened before: Angola beat Italy 4-2 and only fell in the final minutes (5-4), France managed to surprise and distanced Spain in the quarterfinals, winning in the penalty shootout after the tie 4-4 (5-4).
Revenge was served in the mecca of hockey: Portugal thrashed France at the starting gun of the World Cup in San Juan
Portugal did not even have that overwhelming start, not only in terms of goals but also in terms of dominance, as has already happened in this World Cup with France and Chile, taking time to break the German wall (and with Pedro Henriques having two good interventions in the goal) and reaching 1 -0 for Henrique Magalhães in an individual play (8′). It was thought that the motto of the goleada was set but the effectiveness still left much to be desired, having to wait another ten minutes for 2-0 that came from a penalty by Gonçalo Alves (who scored the set piece again because he was conditioned by a knee problem but now playing more minutes on the court). And there would be no more goals until the break.
The second half was different, with Portugal entering faster, playing wider and defending higher up to try to resolve the match early and it was thus, in another good combination between the two Barcelona players, that Hélder Nunes assisted João Rodrigues to the 3-0. (28′), it doesn’t take long for him to score 4-0 twice after a great pass from the birthday boy Rafa (32′). The FC Porto striker, who was 31 years old, immediately gave another volume to the win with 5-0 (33′), which led the Germans to request a technical break to stop the national rise. However, it was too late: Hélder Nunes (35′), Telmo Pinto (38′), João Souto (38′), João Rodrigues (42′) and Gonçalo Alves (46′) also scored in the 10-1 win that had an honor goal from Max Thiel (35′), gets back into the semis with France.
Source: Observadora
