Serbia 1-2 Portugal
The Seleção rounded off their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign yesterday with a seventh victory in a row, thus extending their record of successive wins in competitive games.
Nani put Portugal into an early lead, Serbia equalised on 65 minutes, but a superb João Moutinho strike kept the impressive winning run going. The hosts ended the match with nine men as Kolarov and Matic were both sent off late on.
As has happened throughout the Santos reign, Portugal were far from fluid for much of the game (albeit on this occasion a 2nd-string line-up helps to explain why) but the side showed fortitude and commitment to grind out a positive result. The match also marked the debut of Benfica right-back Nélson Semedo.
Fernando Santos, who turned 61 on Saturday, was naturally delighted with the result. “It was the birthday present that I wanted,” he said in the post-match interview, before recognising that the performance was not the best.
“It was a very tough match. We began well and it was important to score early, but then we started experiencing difficulties. Sometimes it was our fault because instead of controlling the game with ball in the attacking third, we retained the ball at the back, playing lots of passes to the goalkeeper, which encouraged Serbia to come at us.
“João Moutinho’s entrance into the game made a huge difference, as he gave the team great lucidness. He wasn’t fit to play the 90 minutes and told me before the game he could play for 25, 30 minutes. He came on at the right moment and scored at a difficult period for us. It could be an important win for us. The fact that we will be seeded is certainly a very important factor.”
Moutinho on fire
It has been a memorable week for Moutinho. Before the Denmark match the Monaco man had only ever scored two goals for Portugal in his previous 79 appearances, but he has now doubled that tally after netting fine winners against both the Scandinavians and Serbia, firmly re-establishing himself as Portugal’s most important player after Cristiano Ronaldo.
Portugal end qualifying Group I as crushing winners of their section, accumulating 21 points from their eight matches, 7 more than second-placed Albania.
It is a triumph for Fernando Santos’ pragmatic approach. The former Benfica, FC Porto and Sporting coach took the reins in September 2014 after Portugal’s poor World Cup showing in Brazil and a disastrous defeat at home to Albania in the first Euro 2016 qualifying match led to Paulo Bento’s dismissal.
Santos immediately steadied the ship, leading the Seleção to victories over Denmark (1-0, away), Armenia (1-0, home), Serbia (2-1, home), Armenia (3-2, away), Albania (1-0, away), Denmark (1-0, home) and Serbia (2-1, away).
Two of the victories were achieved thanks to stoppage time goals (Cristiano Ronaldo in Denmark and Miguel Veloso in Albania).
Serbia: Stojkovic, Tomovic, S.Mitrovic, D.Tosic, Kolarov (Obradovic, 77’), Milivojevic, Matic, Tadic, Ljajic, Z.Tosic (Sulejmani, 84’), A.Mitrovic (Skuletic, 85’)
Portugal: Rui Patricio, Semedo, Bruno Alves (Neto, 46’), Fonte, Eliseu, Danilo, Veloso (Mourinho, 70’), Andre Andre, Quaresma, Danny (Éder, 57’), Nani
Goals:
[0-1] Nani, 5’
[1-1] Tosic, 69’
[1-2] Moutinho, 78’
