Portugal reached the eighth final of the 2024 European Football Cup, decisively taking the top spot in Group Six of the second round, after its great victory over Turkey 3-0 on Saturday. Meanwhile, Belgium revived its hopes of qualifying after defeating Romania 2-0 in Group Five.
In the first match in Dortmund, Bernardo Silva (21st), Samit Akaydin (28th own goal) and Bruno Fernandes (56th) scored the goals of the Portuguese national team.
Portugal took the lead with at least six points, three points ahead of Turkey, which plays the Czech Republic in the third round, noting that the latter tied with Georgia 1-1 and got their first point.
The European Seleção team has become the only team to reach the qualifying rounds in the last eight editions since 1996, noting that it qualified for the semi-finals in its first participation in 1984 before its absence in the 1988 and 1992 editions.
“We are on the right path”
The chances in the first twenty minutes were not dangerous, until Silva opened the scoring, when he received a loose ball from the defense after a cross from Rafael Leao, and he met it with an easy shot to the goalkeeper’s left (21).
This is Silva’s first goal in a major international tournament after 14 previous matches.
The English Manchester City star, who won the man-of-the-match award, said, “We feel that the team is in a good position. We feel that we are on the right track, and although we still have a match in the group, we qualified for the round of 16.”
He added, “I am very happy with the three points and that we are the third team to qualify. We are one step closer to our goal of winning the title, but this is the first step.”
Turkey gave its opponent a second goal, after a miscommunication between defender Akydin and goalkeeper Bender, who advanced from his goal to get a pass from his colleague, but the former did not pay attention to the goalkeeper leaving the goal due to the lack of communication between them, so he played a wrong pass that headed towards the goal and Zeki Celik tried to push it away, but it was gone. Crossed the line (28).
Türkiye’s first shot on goal came via Kerim Akturkoglu, with a shot blocked by Diogo Kushta for a corner (31).
But the response was more effective when Ronaldo was alone with the goalkeeper, but he chose to pass to Fernandes, who easily put the ball into the goal (56).
Ronaldo, who won the World Player of the Year award five times, is the player who has made the most assists in the European Cup (7) since 1968, noting that he is also the tournament’s all-time top scorer (14).
This was Turkey’s fourth loss in all its confrontations with Portugal in the continental championship, without being able to score any goals against them either.
Silva commented on the large Turkish audience attendance, “We knew that there was a lot of Turkish audience in Germany, and we knew that their audience would be larger than ours, but our audience was wonderful.”
He added, “We did not feel that our crowd was overwhelming at any point in the match. Scoring the first goal early, of course, helps.”
In the other match of this group, goalkeeper Georgi Mamardashvili gifted the Georgia team a valuable point against the Czech Republic in a 1-1 draw at the Volkspark Stadium in Hamburg.
Mamardashvili excelled in stopping 11 shots on his own goal in a match in which the Czech team was the most dangerous and closest to victory.
George Mikotadze (45+5 from a penalty kick) scored for Georgia and Patryk Cech (59) for Czechia.
Georgia got the first point in its first ever participation in the tournament since the country gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, and it is also the first point for the Czech Republic in this participation.
“Of course, a 1-1 draw is not enough for us,” Cech told Czech TV. “We were the best in the match, we had more chances, but unfortunately the goalkeeper saved everything in the first half before the unfortunate penalty kick came.”
He added, “Things did not go our way. We were able to equalize. We pressured them to score the second goal, but we were unable to do so… We have a point and we will play for everything in the last match.”
Belgium regains its balance
In Cologne, the Belgian team revived its hopes of reaching the quarter-finals after its clear victory over Romania 2-0.
The goals of the Belgian national team were scored by midfielder Youri Tielemans (2) and captain Kevin De Bruyne (80).
After losing to Slovakia 0-1 in the opening round, the team of Italian-German coach Domenico Tedesco was faced with the inevitability of winning to avoid the risk of exit in what could be another successive setback after also exiting from the first round of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Belgium won its first points in the tournament, and now has three points in second place, equally with Romania, which is at the top of the group after its remarkable victory in the first round over Ukraine 3-0.
Also, Slovakia and Ukraine each have three points in third and fourth places, respectively, as all possibilities remain open in this group.
The second round also witnessed Ukraine’s victory over Slovakia in this group 2-1 on Friday.
Belgium will play Ukraine on Wednesday in Stuttgart, while Romania will face Slovakia on the same day in Frankfurt.
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