‘You’ll see MORE FROM PORTUGAL!’ 🇵🇹 – Don Hutchison’s REACTION to Portugal’s Euro win | ESPN FC

‘You’ll see MORE FROM PORTUGAL!’ 🇵🇹 – Don Hutchison’s REACTION to Portugal’s Euro win | ESPN FC

we kicked things off with a late game that we saw in the Euros Portugal in action against czechia Portugal would dominate much of this game but it would in fact be Czech who would open to scoring great goal just past the hour Mar to give them the lead Portugal would get the equalizer seven minutes later mistake from the goalkeeper we see an own goal as a result to make it 1-1 it looked like Diego J had scored the winner however Cristiano Ronaldo offside in the buildup but in the end Portugal would get that second con Sou coming off the bench and replicating what his father did 24 years ago and scoring in the euros and in the end it’s Portugal who get the 2-1 Victory Julian Lon joins us we’ll be hearing from Jules in a moment but overall Ali like Portugal deserved this didn’t they were the better team they were the better team and bottom line they won the game they were tested and they found a way to win the game now having said all that which is priority number one three points you start the tournament with a win I think there is a lot more that we need to see from Portugal in this tournament if they’re going to achieve the things that we think that maybe this group is capable of achieving and one of the things that they need to achieve or need to figure out going forward is okay how do we set up this team to be fully successful consistent creative and far more dynamic in the attack I’m not quite sure what the role of Jo canel is in this group he apparently has freedom to move everywhere he wants in the Midfield or sort of from the leftand side but it is him that serves the ball to Cristiano Ronaldo and what was in the offside goal from the right hand side so the structure of Portugal is let’s just say fluid at Best in being fluid I don’t think that this is a team that playing like this will be successful long term in the tournament because when you play against better teams against better opposition they will be able to find spaces there were spaces available to teia who were not committing numbers over and still they were able to create a couple of opportunities in the second half score a great goal go up one nothing again we go to the start of the back to the start of the conversation Portugal won the game that’s the thing that matters the most but I still think that out of this game instead of answers I think there are more questions about Portugal than than Solutions really and so now it’s up to the person that we have talked about coming into the sermon Roberto Martinez to figure out okay why do I how do I get the best out of this group because this was not close to their best you look at it and despite all that attacking Talent the Portugal have it was too thanks really yeah both goals it was um but onto alli’s point I think Roberto Martinez has got a job with a very very talented Squad and the bench is extremely strong probably one of the strongest benches um in the competition but you’re right they had to sweat for it they were making mistakes cze here for fun I think the second one especially was tied legs from the defender the goalkeeper for the first goal Shaka was horrendous you know I just think you have to take command there we were joking off a you was saying it was it was slippery it was wet but you’ve got to take the sort of Defender out the equation and just just catch the ball but I thought I thought you’ll see or I think you’ll see a lot more from Portugal I thought they were I mean look at the passes today I mean close to 620 passes so they were a little bit sort of slow in their possession and listening to the comms guys today I think they were spot on in their analysis taking too many touches they’ve got to speed their play up the thing for me is and as you look at and Al you touched on the this Portugal team and it just feels like an imbalance in in the back you’ve got Diaz Pepe at at what 41 years old and Mendes and then up front you’ve got Ronaldo Lea and and and Silva and then you’ve got the four midfielders who have to make up for any deficits in the back can it give them the age of of of Portugal’s rare guard can they do they have the also the legs to do the running of of a rafaa who doesn’t come back an awful lot Ronaldo is past doing that and and so you you have a very talented Midfield that just seems to get stretched and and it to to czechia’s credit um once they were able to get past that Midfield they threatened and that for me is kind of the Portuguese Achilles heel here once that Midfield kind of gets stretched um I’m not sure that they can C with the attack of of better teams this was a chy team who had their chances uh what was Cristiano Ronaldo’s Mark out of 10 for you Jules I didn’t think he was bad is that great back hill for vitina in the first half which is a a moment of Brilliance there’s the header on the post is slightly offside of course but that’s a good header so I thought I thought he he did okay not great he ran 9.7 kilometers which is of all the strikers so far in this tournament one of the lowest fine because as we’ve explained before this is not his role anymore this is not his job that’s not why we ask him to run down all the channels all the half half spaces he just needs to stay there in the box and and eventually get a good cross in like we had to wait a long time for the draw conel one that Ali mentioned when conel went to right wing back after Gonzalo Inu replace doot and and on a good cross then he was there in the Box in the right place but if obviously there’s not the crosses and Le in the first half how many crosses for nobody really was quite baffling so it’s good to have crisano there it seems in good form he seems in good spirit we saw that during the anthem he had a big smile he high-fived all the mascots before great he’s in good spirits at the end of the day if the quality around him especially in the crosses or the passes the deliveries are not good enough there’s not much more he can do anyway so did you give me a number Jules uh I would go like a six out of 10 I think that’s fair six out of 10 are we in agreement here is that fair sure let me just go back to the structure of Portugal because I think it ties up with the point of Ronaldo and his positioning on the field if indeed he’s going to stay Central which is what we expect expect them to do and then you’re going to depend on the service coming from White areas and if on the left hand side you have Rafael leao when he looked active today when he took on Defenders he seem Unstoppable but it’s too inconsistent and too many times he settled on cutting the ball back and passing the ball backwards instead of taking on the defender let’s just say that he stays on the left hand side on the right hand side there is no presence because you’re depending on D to take that position and so it’s a team that because of the way it’s structure it’s kind of tilted towards the left hand side and so you don’t have the service coming from the right the service from the right didn’t come until Canelo switched over to the right hand side and and this is the way the team is structure this is the way the team when you look at them when you look at the players and their position it seems Le on the left hand side Ronaldo in the middle and when you look on the right hand side well it’s not quite there because Bernardo Sila starts talking in here he’s he starts coming towards the middle he’s not staying out wide right and so it leaves a big big gap on the right hand side and there is no service coming from the right hand side so they become are more predictable and if indeed Ronaldo is not going to run from the middle out to wide areas then where is that width coming from who’s providing that WID and if you don’t have that WID then everything collapses towards the middle and it’s easier to defend Bernardo Silva was or is a magnificent player but to Ali’s point you ask him to play that right side position we saw for his chance didn’t we when he tried to cross it on his right foot left foot he probably pulls a trigger has a shot on target trying to cut it back on his right foot it’s difficult Rafal is a player that I’ve watched and commentated on so many times and he drives me up the wall because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player so talented can drive you up the wall in terms of his final ball he dived when he didn’t need to dive and got a yellow card completely unnecessary I thought the one player in my opinion who I thought was magnificent today was vitinho in the middle of the park I thought he’s just elegant I think the way that he plays the positions that he picks up the way a pass that he delivers on Ronaldo to Jules point and as Jules correctly said there there’s no need for to cover 12 13k play Within the width of the 18 Yard Box you got all that talent to try and Supply him if you supply him with chances he’ll score goals but you’re relying on a guy who’s close to 40 why would you try and make him run big distances but fora to me was was Sensational he was man of the match on apparently so someone at least agrees with you uh Shaka overall do we a Portugal better in or worse than what we thought um coming into the start of this tournament well coming coming into the tournament Portugal were favorites and and this performance they they didn’t look that but that with all the criticism they won right and you you take that often times the first game of of of international tournaments are always fairly Cy Affairs because certainly the weaker team you know are prepared to put up a more stilling rear guard without really venturing forward so it it’s it’s always a test and then the other the other side to to that is while you don’t play well scoring the 92nd minute always makes things feel a whole lot bigger than than than they actually are um it feels like you’ve ground a result out you’ve got momentum on your side and you just take away a little bit more so all in all not a great start come considering what we were expecting but you you you take it for what it is and I think it it feels a whole lot bigger than the struggle of the 90 minutes that maybe it was do you think we’ll see the same starting 11 Jules next time out for Portugal Roberto Martinez look at this and feels that he needs to make changes I hope I hope not I hope we don’t see it again because really to go back to what Ali said earlier I I didn’t really understand the starting lineup to start with uh Canelo in that kind of Midfield position with a bit of freedom but not so much then suddenly that Midfield became quite congested Canelo Bruno Fernandez who was asked to play quite deep in the first half especially vitina who say was outstanding but vtina is so good just let him this is his position this is let him there let Bruno play be higher don’t give me that Canelo in Midfield it doesn’t really make much sense Bernardo Silva on the right find him a better place because as we said on the right maybe not the right fit for him right now certainly in a tournament like this and even some of the first substitutions forget about conesa he brought him in 100 seconds later he scored a goal great but even before that to go to the back three even that didn’t really work so much and didn’t really make much sense either so I think Martinez has a lot of work to do with himself and his staff to sort out what tactically really wants to do with those players and it’s not easy because there’s so many options so much tallent we’ve said that for for many many shows now so I get it but that at the start didn’t make sense didn’t work so I don’t want to see that again for sure Neto might be the change bring Netto in for Rafael right because I think when Netto gets the ball he’s got the abil well both of them have to be fair but I think Neto when he’s when he’s on it it’s a lot more consistent and you’re trying to find chances for Ronaldo Netto might be the player as we saw uh from his assist when he came on that he can go past players with a turn a pace and skill that might be able to get Ronaldo more chances well the other question is Cristiano Ronaldo wi 90 minutes today is he going 909090 oh yeah he was smiling at the he high in the kids I’m I’m trying to Smiling if indeed if indeed he’s our best player for Portugal if indeed he’s the guy that’s going to score the goals it’s still no denying that the guy is a little older than he used to be and so therefore maybe you want to save his legs at some point the time to do it is in the group stage not in the knock cast [Music]

Julien Laurens, Ale Moreno, Shaka Hislop and Don Hutchison join Dan Thomas on ESPN FC to react to Portugal’s 2-1 win over Czechia in UEFA Euro Group F play.

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