European World Cup Qualifiers - Group B Review
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Hungary vs Portugal Match Review
Match Details:
Venue: Groupama Arena (Budapest)
Referee: Danny Makkelie (Ned)
Scoreline: Hungary 0 - 1 Portugal
Portugal still sits 3-points behind Group B leaders, Switzerland, after unconvincingly winning 1 – 0 against a Hungary side that visibly lacked any desire to fight back in the game after they went down in the second half.
A flurry of chances for Portugal in the first half saw them pepper the Hungarian goalie with shots early on. Hungary, on the other hand, threatened a bit with counter attacks. Reigning UEFA Player of the year, Ronaldo had a goal bound effort tipped over the bar, while teammate Soares had a shot at close range go over.
After half an hour, the game saw a rather abrupt halt to proceedings, when Portugal’s defender, Pepe was caught by Hungarian Tamas Priskin with a needless elbow to the face while the ball was in the air. He subsequently received his marching orders by Dutch Referee, Danny Makkelie.
With Portugal having the numerical advantage, they struggled to impose themselves in the game, allowing Hungary hang on to the 0 – 0 scoreline until half-time.
Portugal had the opportunity to regroup at the break and tried to fashion out a way to make their numerical advantage count. This, they did on resumption. Ronaldo stretched the Hungarians to the end line and then crossed for team mate Andre Silva to head home, despite the best efforts of the Hungarian defenders to thwart the effort.
Not much clear-cut opportunities were created after that goal, and the referee eventually called time on a lackluster game that lacked any real urgency after Tamas Priskin got himself sent off in the first half.
Latvia vs Switzerland
In the other group game, Group Leaders thrashed Latvia 3 – 0 away, to cement their position on top of Group B. Haris Seferovic got the game running with the first and only goal in the first 45 minutes.
The second half saw two clinical finishes from Blerim Dzemaili and a penalty from Ricardo Rodriguez, to seal a decent away result.
Match Details:
Venue: Skonto stadions (Riga)
Referee: Gozubuyuk S. (Ned)
Scoreline: Latvia 0 - 3 Switzerland
The Faroe Islands vs. Andorra
In the final game of the group, Faroe Islands took a 1 goal lead through Gilli Rolantsson Sorensen, early on in the first half, against Andorra and held out for the narrow win.
Match Details:
Venue: Tórsvøllur (Tórshavn)
Referee: Sant A. (Mlt)
Scoreline: Faroe Island 1 - 0 Andorra
World Cup Qualifiers Standings
After match day 8 of the World Cup Qualifiers, current European Champions, Portugal, are still 3 points behind Switzerland. With 2 games left to play, can Portugal still make it to Russia for next year's 2018 World Cup? Drop your comments.
The number on adbomen christiano ronaldo is my lucky number because that is the date of my birthday. @steemsports must go on. Hehee
the group B is becoming a very interesting group to see, although the one that shines is Cristiano Ronaldo all the teams have players of an even level, we are going to see how the qualifying ends, we from here we are seeing as they leave the qualifiers in South America, where the Argentina of Leonel Messi has just drawn the last two games, so the classification to Russia 2018 is increasingly complicated. Thank you very much for sharing!
I am sure the spirit of portugal winner gruop B. Prospective opponents Andorra is very weak. Yesterday the time Portugal could host win 6-0. If Switzerland wins only a thin 3-2 top Hungary, prospective opponent later.
Whereas if Portugal versus Switzerland in Lisbon, Ronaldo scored more..