The 3-0 result ruthlessly exposes Turkey’s weaknesses in defence.
One of the strongest squads of the tournament: Portugal celebrates its victory.
Alexandra Fechete / Imago
The scene almost seemed staged. When a boy ran up to Cristiano Ronaldo during the second half, the superstar hugged him and posed with him for a selfie – yes, the little guy even had a phone with him. The Dortmund Westfalenstadion was moved and experienced an emotional high point after all. The match itself between Portugal and Turkey offered all sorts of curiosities, but little drama. What was supposed to be an atmospheric high point of the European Championship turned into a procession of the Portuguese. The title favorite won 3-0 against the secret co-hosts and thus secured victory in Group F early.
The Turks made an involuntary, high contribution to this. Their defensive behavior was hardly up to the standard of a European Championship final. While the 0:1 goal, which came from a rebound by Bernardo Silva, was a conventional assignment error, the 0:2 goal was a real slapstick. Samet Akaydin played a skilful back pass to goalie Altay Bayindir – who was standing far in front of his goal. The ball rolled towards the goal, and desperate Turks rushed after it, in vain.
The senior directs the defense
Portugal has perhaps the strongest squad at the European Championships, has an innovative coach in Roberto Martínez (formerly of Belgium) after the departure of the ultra-pragmatic Fernando Santos, and clearly exudes the ambition to win this tournament. Martínez preaches the great good of the common good at every opportunity. The 3-0 victory showed how much even the once insatiable Ronaldo subordinates himself to this idea. This time, a slip by Zeki Celik put the Portuguese in the spotlight. Ronaldo appeared in the penalty area with the ball, he only had to get past the goalkeeper – and selflessly passed it to the even better positioned Bruno Fernandes.
Pepe took care of the rest. The 41-year-old tournament senior player commanded the Portuguese defense with breathtaking aplomb. Shortly before the 1-0, he prevented a possible Turkish lead with a perfect tackle on Orkun Kökcü, and from then on he won every duel. The Portuguese fans repeatedly celebrated Pepe with chants; a privilege that is usually only granted to Ronaldo.
A storm for 235 million
Portugal, however, also provided a slapstick performance of their own. Left winger Rafael Leão was shown a yellow card for diving for the second game in a row. Leão thus managed to be banned from the next match after the opening match for the stupidest of all offenses.
Diogo Jota, João Felix and Gonçalo Ramos could take their chance in the next match against Georgia on Wednesday – these are the three strikers that Martínez didn’t even give a minute of play to in Dortmund. Together they cost around 235 million euros when they last changed clubs. So much for the quality of the Portuguese squad. It remains to be seen whether they will find equal rivals in the knockout rounds.
An article from the «»
