Jonathan Wilson
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Portugal were missing Cristiano Ronaldo and other key players but the result still feels like a big shock, even though Cape Verde have risen up the world rankings
• Match report: Portugal 0-2 Cape VerdeLet’s start with the caveats. There was no Cristiano Ronaldo, João Moutinho, Nani, Fábio Coentrão or Bruno Alves. There wasn’t even José Bosingwa. This was a young, experimental Portugal side. It was only a friendly. It was windy. And Cape Verdean football has improved immeasurably over the past decade; they are not no-hopers but are ranked 38th in the world, not quite as good as Wales but better than Scotland, and were denied a play-off for World Cup qualification only after they were penalised for fielding an ineligible player. But still, this is a result that will reverberate and that will be remembered, the night when Portugal, semi-finalists at the last European Championship, hosted their former colony Cape Verde and lost 2-0.
Portugal’s coach, Fernando Santos, who last summer took Greece to the last 16 of the World Cup, made as brave a fist of it as anybody could have done, his dour face even saggier than usual. “We did some positive things,” he said, “especially in the second half, and even when we had 10 players they couldn’t get to our goal. They were looking for a goal and we could have reduced the deficit.” Some relief, then: Portugal pluckily held out to lose only 2-0 to a country with a population 21 times smaller than its own, many of whose players are scattered through the lower reaches of the Portuguese league.
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• Match report: Portugal 0-2 Cape VerdeLet’s start with the caveats. There was no Cristiano Ronaldo, João Moutinho, Nani, Fábio Coentrão or Bruno Alves. There wasn’t even José Bosingwa. This was a young, experimental Portugal side. It was only a friendly. It was windy. And Cape Verdean football has improved immeasurably over the past decade; they are not no-hopers but are ranked 38th in the world, not quite as good as Wales but better than Scotland, and were denied a play-off for World Cup qualification only after they were penalised for fielding an ineligible player. But still, this is a result that will reverberate and that will be remembered, the night when Portugal, semi-finalists at the last European Championship, hosted their former colony Cape Verde and lost 2-0.
Portugal’s coach, Fernando Santos, who last summer took Greece to the last 16 of the World Cup, made as brave a fist of it as anybody could have done, his dour face even saggier than usual. “We did some positive things,” he said, “especially in the second half, and even when we had 10 players they couldn’t get to our goal. They were looking for a goal and we could have reduced the deficit.” Some relief, then: Portugal pluckily held out to lose only 2-0 to a country with a population 21 times smaller than its own, many of whose players are scattered through the lower reaches of the Portuguese league.
Continue reading...
More...