Portugal and Croatia faced off in what promised to be an exciting game, instead the game was pretty dull as none of the sides managed to have a shot on goal in 90 minutes and Portugal snatched a win through a Ricardo Quaresma goal late in Extra time. Here are 5 things we learnt from Croatia vs Portugal.
1 Croatia missed their chances
Croatia played brilliantly in the group stages , and caused a major upset defeating Spain and were responsible for setting up possibly the tie of the round of 16, Spain vs Italy. They were full of confidence and faced a Portugal team which failed to win any of their three games. Croatia should have done much better , instead were wasteful and never looked like threatening.
2 Portugal are far from convincing
After 4 games, Portugal have not been able to muster a win in 90 minutes. They clearly lacked any motivation out on the pitch and gave the ball away cheaply , lucky for them Croatia didn’t do much either. Portugal were lucky to have come through with the win, the game could have easily gone into penalties.
3 Ronaldo is Portugal’s main man
The above phrase has been said about a million times before ,and there is no harm in repeating it. Cristiano Ronaldo looked like a shining light on another dull day for the Portuguese. He made several brilliant runs giving a tough time to the Croatian defenders , and it was his shot which was headed in by Ricardo Quaresma for Portugal’s goal.
4 Same old story for Croatia
The way this tournament ended for Croatia reminded of several past tournaments. A talented squad which always comes short . It’s a long flight home to Zagreb now for the Croats and they now need to look back upon what went wrong in a tournament which looked so promising ,
5 Portugal will now face Poland after Croatia vs Portugal
Portugal will now face Poland for a place in the Semifinals after the Poles beat Switzerland 5-4 in a penalty shootout. Poland have defended really well all tournament and this one will be an entertaining fixture.
Also Read 4 things we learnt from Wales vs Northern Ireland
