By Darwin Largo
The Portugal National Team got an important victory in their fifth match for the Euro 2024 qualifiers. It was 1-0 against Slovakia at the Štadión Tehelné in the city of Bratislava and allowed them to remain as sole leaders of group J, since their rivals were in second place and could snatch the first place in the standings.
For this match, Spanish coach Roberto Martinez decided to leave out stars such as Joao Felix, Goncalo Ramos and Diogo Jota, who did not even come off the bench in the second half. Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Rafael Leao and Cristiano Ronaldo did. And they were enough to win the match.
Bruno Fernandes scored the only goal of the night in the 42nd minute of the first half. He received a pass from Diogo Dalot on the right side of the field, dribbled past several opponents, got into the box and, when all the defenders thought he would give a pass, he shot surprisingly to the goal and beat the resistance of goalkeeper Martin Dubravka.
Slovakia could not recover from that blow and Portugal obtained an important victory that brings them closer to qualifying for next year's European Championship in Germany. However, it was not all good news for the team.
16 minutes into the second half Cristiano Ronaldo tried to deflect the ball and unintentionally hit goalkeeper Dubravka, so referee Nyberg booked him. This was bad news for Portugal, as CR7 had picked up another yellow card in a previous game and will now have to serve a one-match suspension. As a result, coach Roberto Martinez will not be able to include him in the squad for the match against Luxembourg on Monday, September 11.
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