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Key events
After a dramatic and highly entertaining day in Germany – this one was a bit of a slow burner but we got there in the end – Group F looks like this. All four sides brought something to the party.
A strange match to parse, that one. Portugal were the better side on balance, much more threatening over the piece, without ever really hitting their straps. But both of their goals featured an element of good fortune, Jindřich Staněk clanking the ball off Robin Hranáč’s leg for the first, the ill-fated Hranáč slipping to inadvertently tee up Francisco Conceição for the late winner. Then again, when you do most of the pressing, you’re going to get more of the breaks. The Czechs fought well and that will give them succour; Portugal will be delighted with a dramatic win, knowing they can play much better.
FULL TIME: Portugal 2-1 Czech Republic
Ronaldo screams in delight as the final whistle goes! Portugal have won it at the death!
90 min +3: Tomáš Chorý comes on for Tomáš Holeš. Barák shovels a pass down the inside-right channel. Lingr attempts to dink a header over Costa and into the top left, but the ball’s always heading over the bar and the flag goes up for offside anyway.
GOAL! Portugal 2-1 Czech Republic (Conceição 90+2)
Portugal weren’t to be denied! Pedro Neto steals the ball on the left wing and romps into the box. He crosses low, dangerously so. Hranáč attempts to intercept, but slips and can only tee up Francisco Conceição, making his competitive debut and only just on, six yards out. Conceição can’t miss! The winner!
90 min: There will be four added minutes.
89 min: Vitinha, Nuno Mendes and João Cancelo and are replaced by Nélson Semedo, Pedro Neto and Francisco Conceição.
NO GOAL! Portugal 1-1 Czech Republic
VAR rules the goal out in double-quick time! Ronaldo was a few inches offside as he won the first header. Had he cut his toenails last night, or perhaps worn a thinner vest under his shirt, he might have been on. It was that close!
GOAL! Portugal 2-1 Czech Republic (Jota 87)
A cross whipped in from the right by João Cancelo. Ronaldo rises high at the far stick, and plants a header across Staněk and off the right-hand post. The ball pings back to Jota, who plants a header into the right-hand side of the net. What a header by Ronaldo, and what reaction by Jota!
85 min: Jota nearly gets the better of Hranáč down the left, but just when he looks to have wrestled clear, the defender gets back to block and put a stop to the attack.
83 min: The pace drops a little bit as everyone takes a little more care with everything they do. Nobody wants to lose this now.
81 min: … so having said that Portugal look the more likely, it’s the Czechs who carve out the next half-chance. A ball cut back from the byline on the right is met by Ševčík on the penalty spot. He’s falling backwards and can’t get any purchase on the shot. The ball’s blocked and breaks to Souček, who drags a weak shot wide right from the edge of the box.
80 min: Another Czech double change, as Antonín Barák and Petr Ševčík replace Pavel Šulc and the goalscorer Lukáš Provod.
78 min: Vitinha sends a daisycutter towards the bottom left. Staněk turns it around the post. Fernandes takes the corner … and it flies over everyone’s head. He’s not been on it with the old dead balls tonight.
77 min: Just as Portugal were visibly rattled in the wake of the opening goal, so the Czechs appear despondent after that own goal. Suddenly they look a yard slower, with Portugal first to mostly everything, and looking the most likely again. Meanwhile on the subject of all these long-range goals, here’s Niall Mullen: “Is it me or has there been no complaining about the tournament ball? Usually keepers, pundits, and set-piece merchants line up to condemn the random flight of a new innovative ball with special flyaway technology. This time the players seem to just want to hammer it into the net, repeatedly. Maybe they should stick with this one in perpetuity?”
75 min: A long pass looks like releasing Ronaldo down the left … but he’s not got the pace and the flag pops up for offside anyway. “Long range screamers,” begins Charles Antaki. “That’s what we want: long range screamers. Even if it ends now, Euro 2024 has delivered.”
73 min: To be fair to Portugal, the cross was decent, Nuno Mendes competed well to win the header, and Ronaldo forced the error by lurking. But it was still a clumsy mistake by Staněk. Anyway, here we are now, with Portuguese tails up, and Silva has a batter from the edge of the box. The keeper does much better this time to block.
71 min: That was more Staněk’s fault than Hranáč’s, but it’s the defender’s name on the scoresheet. The goal was met with almost total silence for a nanosecond, as the entire ground tried to work out what had happened. Then a roar from the Portugal fans as the truth became clear. A big stroke of good fortune for Portugal; a self-inflicted wound for the Czechs.
GOAL! Portugal 1-1 Czech Republic (Hranáč 69 og)
A cross comes in from the right. Nuno Mendes, at the far post, heads down and across goal. Staněk parries at the feet of Hranáč, pushing the ball onto the defender’s leg. Hranáč can do nothing about it as the ball pings off him and past his own keeper. All in slow motion.
68 min: Provod’s screamer was the Czech’s first shot on target, and is the 11th from outside the box so far this tournament. “Czechia take the lead against the run of play. And in the crowd, the Czechs are bouncing. Here all week, try the Svíčková.” Gary Byrne, there, ladies and gentlemen, doing most of my work for me.
66 min: Jota’s first act is to high-kick Provod in the head. Take that for scoring against us.
65 min: On the touchline, Roberto Martinez performs the internationally recognised palms-down mime for CALM DOWN. Portugal certainly look rattled.
64 min: Portugal immediately respond with a double change. Rafael Leão and Diogo Dalot are replaced by Gonçalo Inácio and Diogo Jota.
GOAL! Portugal 0-1 Czech Republic (Provod 62)
Well, this was worth waiting for! Portugal have had all the possession, but it’s the Czechs who take the lead! Douděra chases what looks like a lost cause down the left. He gets the ball and crosses long. Coufal gathers on the right and cuts back for Provod, who takes a touch before steering a screamer across Costa and into the left-hand side of the goal! What a strike!
61 min: Czechia make a double change. Mojmír Chytil and Ondřej Lingr come on for Jan Kuchta and the misfiring – and freshly booked – Patrik Schick.
59 min: João Cancelo releases Bernardo Silva down the inside-right channel. He opts to cross low instead of shooting, hoping to find Ronaldo. Hranáč slides in to intercept at the cost of a corner, from which, you know the score by now, nothing occurs.
58 min: This free kick is in officially designated Ronaldo Territory™. He pelts goalwards. The ball swerves this way and that, yet somehow flies straight at Staněk, who gathers.
57 min: Schick flips João Cancelo into the air like a pancake, and it’s a free kick from a central position, 25 yards out. A yellow card for Schick, too.
56 min: Ronaldo again pulls his neck back with a view to planting a header goalwards, but Coufal steps in and eyebrows away just in time. Then Staněk has to claw the ball away from the middle of a crowded box. Portugal are beginning to cause the Czechs problems.
55 min: Ronaldo attempts to do exactly that, but upon meeting Dias’s right-wing cross, his header is deflected over the bar, and nothing comes of the resulting corner.
54 min: Czechia continue to sit happily along the front of their own box. No way in for Portugal. Nothing much happening, so Joe Pearson’s mind drifts away to Portugal’s star striker: “Sure you can score with ease in Riyadh, but can you do it on a rainy Tuesday night in Leipzig?”
52 min: Silva sashays in from the right and Dalots a curling shot over the bar. This match really hasn’t got going at all.
50 min: The rain is coming down fairly hard in Leipzig. It’s nothing compared to the Dortmund squall of earlier, but you wouldn’t want to be caught out in it without a brolly.
48 min: Fernandes slips a cute pass down the right for Silva, who digs out a cross on the byline, just in time to win a corner off Krejčí. The set piece is worked back to Vitinha, whose cross-cum-shot is no good whatsoever, sailing miles over the bar. He sticks up a hand of apology to his team-mates.
46 min: Dalot drops a shoulder to glide infield from the right and aims a curler towards the top left. It’s always going over, but it was a decent effort nonetheless. Had it been on target, Staněk might have been in trouble.
The Czech Republic get the second half underway. No changes. “I hope you’re happy with yourself with that ‘ctrl+jinx’ no-goalless-games-thus-far pre-game talk,” begins Jon Collin, because somebody had to clip me around the lug for it. “If only this Portugal team had some firepower and/or options from the bench, they’d surely be contenders. Where’s Eder?”
Half-time advertisement. More hot MBM action here, this time tomorrow night!
HALF TIME: Portugal 0-0 Czech Republic
Portugal have been the better side; as tonight’s underdogs, Czechia will be the happier one. The goalkeepers haven’t had very much to do.
45 min: Leão teases Coufal down the left again. He reaches the byline and cuts back for Fernandes, but Holeš is covering and hacks out for a corner. And something happens at this one, Ronaldo making some space and time just inside the box to have a lash at goal. Straight at Staněk, who parries well.
44 min: … and eventually Nuno Mendes, in an attempt to force something into happening, shovels a pass down the inside-left channel to absolutely nobody. Goal kick.
43 min: Portugal pass it around patiently. They go nowhere.
41 min: Coufal intercepts with Portugal faffing around. Portugal have committed a lot of men to the attack, but all of the other Czech players are sitting back, and Coufal has nobody to pass to. Eventually Schick appears, but upon receiving the ball, he quickly loses it. Poor Coufal, whose efforts deserved better support.
39 min: Coufal finds a bit of space on the overlap down the right. He crosses for Schick, who can’t connect with his header, six yards out. Dias clears instead. Portugal counter, with Leão attempting to steam past Coufal on the left, just outside the box. He goes over … and is booked for simulation. There wasn’t much contact, that’s for sure. A strange decision to go over, because it looked like he’d got past his man.
37 min: The Czech captain Souček goes down, holding his right leg. Play stops awhile. Then he springs up again. A professional pause to break up the momentum Portugal had been building?
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