European Football Championship 2012 / Portugal
This article covers the Portuguese national football team at the 2012 European Championship in Poland and Ukraine . For Portugal it was the sixth participation and since the final round has been held with 16 teams from 1996 onwards, Portugal has always been able to qualify or participate as hosts.
qualification
Portugal completed the qualification for the European Championship in qualifying Group H . The Portuguese stumbled at the start and only took one point from their first two games against Cyprus and Norway without their injured captain Cristiano Ronaldo . Then national coach Carlos Queiroz was on leave and replaced by Paulo Bento . With Bento and the recovered Ronaldo, Portugal won five games in a row, making up for the unsuccessful start to qualification. Due to a defeat against Denmark on the last day of the match , the Portuguese had to go into relegation. There the team secured the ticket to the European Championship after a goalless first leg with a 6-2 win in the second leg.
Games
All results from a Portuguese perspective.
| date | Venue | opponent | Result | Goal scorers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09/03/2010 | Guimarães |
 Cyprus
|
4: 4 (2: 2) | 0: 1 Aloneftis (3rd), 1: 1 Almeida (8th), 1: 2 Konstantinou (11th), 2: 2 R. Meireles (29th), 3: 2 Danny (50th), 3: 3 Okkas (57th), 4: 3 Fernandes (60th), 4: 4 Avraam (89th) |
| 07.09.2010 | Oslo ( NOR ) |
 Norway
|
0: 1 (0: 1) | 0: 1 Huseklepp (21st) |
| 10/08/2010 | postage |
 Denmark
|
3: 1 (2: 0) | 1: 0, 2: 0 Nani (29th, 31st), 2: 1 Carvalho (79th, ET ), 3: 1 C. Ronaldo (85th) |
| 10/12/2010 | Reykjavík ( ISL ) |
 Iceland
|
3: 1 (2: 1) | 1: 0 C. Ronaldo (3rd), 1: 1 Helguson (17th), 2: 1 R. Meireles (27th), 3: 1 Postiga (72nd) |
| 06/04/2011 | Lisbon |
Norway
|
1: 0 (0: 0) | 1-0 Postiga (53rd) |
| 02.09.2011 | Nicosia ( CYP ) |
Cyprus
|
4: 0 (1: 0) | 1-0, 2-0 C. Ronaldo (35th, 82nd), 3-0 Almeida (84th), 4-0 Danny (90th) |
| 07/10/2011 | postage |
Iceland
|
5: 3 (3: 0) | 1: 0, 2: 0 Nani (13th, 21st), 3: 0 Postiga (45th), 3: 1, 3: 2 Jónasson (48th, 67th), 4: 2 Moutinho (81st), 5: 2 Eliseu (87.), 5: 3 Sigurðsson (90.) |
| 10/11/2011 | Copenhagen ( DEN ) |
Denmark
|
1: 2 (0: 1) | 0: 1 Krohn-Dehli (13th), 0: 2 Bendtner (63th), 1: 2 C. Ronaldo (90th) |
table
| Pl. | team | Sp. | S. | U | N | Gates | Pt. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denmark |
8th | 6th | 1 | 1 | 15: 6 | 19th |
| 2 |
 Portugal
|
8th | 5 | 1 | 2 | 21:12 | 16 |
| 3 |
Norway
|
8th | 5 | 1 | 2 | 10: 7 | 16 |
| 4th |
Iceland
|
8th | 1 | 1 | 6th | 6:14 | 4th |
| 5 |
Cyprus
|
8th | 0 | 2 | 6th | 7:20 | 2 |
Relegation
| date | Venue | opponent | Result | Goal scorers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11/11/2011 | Zenica ( BIH ) |
 Bosnia and Herzegovina
|
0-0 | |
| 11/15/2011 | Lisbon |
Bosnia and Herzegovina
|
6: 2 (2: 1) | 1: 0, 3: 1 C. Ronaldo (8th, 53rd), 2: 0 Nani (24th), 2: 1 Misimović (41st), 3: 2 Spahić (65th), 4: 2, 6 : 2 Postiga (72nd, 82nd), 5: 2 Veloso (80th) |
preparation
Portugal played two test matches just before the European Championship: on May 26th in Leiria against Macedonia (0-0) and on June 2nd in Lisbon against Turkey (1-3).
Games of Portugal
EM preliminary round
At the draw, Portugal as well as Germany and Denmark were drawn among the Dutch, who were second in the UEFA rankings as the group head of Group B. Portugal's last game against Germany was the EM quarter-finals in 2008 , which Portugal lost 3-2. The record against Germany is negative with 2 wins, 5 draws and 8 defeats before the European Championship, but was even at the European Championships (1 win, 1 draw and 1 defeat before the European Championship). The last game against the Netherlands was the round of 16 at the 2006 World Cup , which the Portuguese won 1-0, with two Dutch and two Portuguese sent off with yellow and red cards. Even the only meeting at an EM, the semifinals at EM 2004 , the Portuguese were able to win against the Dutch. The record against the Dutch is positive with 6 wins, 3 draws and one defeat before the European Championship. Portugal also has a positive record against the Danes with 8 wins, 2 draws and 3 defeats before the European Championship. Both met last in qualifying (see above). Only in 1996 did they both meet at a European Championship finals: In the preliminary round , the two separated 1: 1.
Preliminary group B:
All games take place in Ukraine .
| Pl. | country | Sp. | S. | U | N | Gates | Diff. | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |
 Germany
|
3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5: 2 | +3 | 9 |
| 2. |
Portugal
|
3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5: 4 | +1 | 6th |
| 3. |
Denmark
|
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4: 5 | −1 | 3 |
| 4th |
 Netherlands
|
3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2: 5 | −3 | 0 |
| Saturday 9 June 2012 in Lviv | |||
| Germany |
- |
Portugal
|
1: 0 (0: 0) |
| Wednesday, June 13, 2012 in Lviv | |||
|
Denmark
|
- | Portugal |
2: 3 (1: 2) |
| Sunday June 17, 2012 in Kharkiv | |||
|
Portugal
|
- |
Netherlands
|
2: 1 (1: 1) |
Knockout round
After the opening defeat against Germany and the two subsequent victories, Portugal reached the knockout round, as in all European Championship finals, and met the Czech Republic, the group winners of Group A , in the first quarter-finals on June 21 in Warsaw . Both met before twice in a row, in the European Championship quarter-finals 1996 ( 0: 1 ) and the European Championship preliminary round in 2008 ( 3: 1 ).
In the semifinals, the Portuguese met their neighbor Spain, the most common international opponent. The overall balance (which differs in the statistics of the two associations, as games during the Spanish Civil War are partly not taken into account) was negative with 8 wins, 12 draws and 17 defeats as well as a goal difference of 44:75 before the European Championship. They met for the last time before the European Championship on November 17, 2010 in Lisbon , with Portugal having their biggest win against Spain with a 4-0 win. The last competitive game between the two before the European Championship ended 1-0 for Spain in the round of 16 of the 2010 World Cup. At European Championships, both met twice in the preliminary round, first in 1984 (1: 1), then in 2004 (1: 0).
| Quarter-finals Thursday June 21, 2012 in Warsaw | |||
 Czech Republic
|
- | Portugal |
0: 1 (0: 0) |
| Semi-finals Wed., June 27, 2012 in Donetsk | |||
|
Portugal |
- |  Spain |
0: 0 a.d., 2: 4 i. E. |
Squad
On May 14, 2012, national coach Paulo Bento named the squad for the 2012 European Football Championship . Bento surprised by calling two players, Miguel Lopes and Custódio, to his team of 23 players without any international experience. On May 23, Hugo Viana , who was last used in 2007, was nominated for the injured Carlos Martins . The most experienced players in the squad were Cristiano Ronaldo and Hélder Postiga , who had also played in 2004 and 2008 .
- ↑ a b As of June 27, 2012, after the game against Spain
- ↑ Status: Before the start of the European Championship finals
- ↑ As a player
Awards
Fábio Coentrão , Pepe and Cristiano Ronaldo were voted into the UEFA All-Star Team of the tournament's 23 best players.
Individual evidence
- ↑ European Championship qualification group H (UEFA.com)
- ↑ Portugal coach Queiroz fired (Welt.de), September 9, 2010
- ↑ Ronaldo shines for Portugal (sueddeutsche.de), November 16, 2011
- ↑ Paulo Bento knows how to surprise (kicker.de), May 14, 2012
- ↑ FIFA.com: Portugal nominated Viana according to (FIFA.com) 23 May 2012
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