Andy Brassell says Portugal may have started
with defeat, but Paulo Bento will have been heartened after seeing
his supporting cast play their role alongside the stars.
If defeat in Lviv
stung, then pride swelled in the chest, too. Portugal were beaten but
unbowed against UEFA EURO 2008 finalists Germany, with frustration,
rather than despondency, the overriding emotion.
Some have already suggested that Portugal's approach in their UEFA EURO 2012 opener lacked ambition, harking back to the displays at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but expecting anything other than caution after last week's defensive difficulties in the final pre-tournament friendly with Turkey was unrealistic.
The wait-and-see policy also incorporated due deference to a Germany side whose attacking arsenal – both on the pitch and the bench – understandably makes them many people's favourites to lift the Henri Delaunay Cup at Kyiv's Olympic Stadium on 1 July.
Paulo Bento watches on at the Arena Lviv
Coach
Paulo Bento is shrewd enough to know one set of tactics does not fit
every situation in international football. So he aimed to passively
control the game, rather than going for the jugular as had been
necessary to turn around a precarious situation in qualifying. To this
end, he turned to two of his old charges from his tenure at Sporting
Clube de Portugal, Miguel Veloso and João Moutinho.For four
years, the pair had dovetailed in the middle of the park for Sporting,
having graduated through the club's esteemed academy. By 2010, neither
had really begun to realise his full potential; admittedly a high
benchmark had been set given Veloso and Moutinho were the leaders of a
generation expected to fill the boots of retired greats such as Luís
Figo and Manuel Rui Costa.
They moved on – Veloso to Genoa CFC and Moutinho to FC Porto. Both have clearly matured from the experience. Veloso put the frustration of several weeks on the bench in Serie A behind him as he gave an immaculate performance in his deep midfield role, shielding the defence. Meanwhile, Moutinho's incisive passing threatened to be as big an asset for Portugal as it is for Porto. His slide-rule ball to Cristiano Ronaldo in the 64th minute deserved to create a goal for the captain, but Jérôme Boateng's last-ditch intervention denied him.
Bento may look to Ronaldo and Nani to provide the goals which will help Portugal emerge from Group B, but after Lviv he now knows the less-heralded members of the side are good enough to back them up.
Some have already suggested that Portugal's approach in their UEFA EURO 2012 opener lacked ambition, harking back to the displays at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but expecting anything other than caution after last week's defensive difficulties in the final pre-tournament friendly with Turkey was unrealistic.
The wait-and-see policy also incorporated due deference to a Germany side whose attacking arsenal – both on the pitch and the bench – understandably makes them many people's favourites to lift the Henri Delaunay Cup at Kyiv's Olympic Stadium on 1 July.
Paulo Bento watches on at the Arena Lviv
They moved on – Veloso to Genoa CFC and Moutinho to FC Porto. Both have clearly matured from the experience. Veloso put the frustration of several weeks on the bench in Serie A behind him as he gave an immaculate performance in his deep midfield role, shielding the defence. Meanwhile, Moutinho's incisive passing threatened to be as big an asset for Portugal as it is for Porto. His slide-rule ball to Cristiano Ronaldo in the 64th minute deserved to create a goal for the captain, but Jérôme Boateng's last-ditch intervention denied him.
Bento may look to Ronaldo and Nani to provide the goals which will help Portugal emerge from Group B, but after Lviv he now knows the less-heralded members of the side are good enough to back them up.
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