Cristiano Ronaldo scores the only goal of the game as Portugal rack up their third straight win to secure a place in the EURO 2012 semi-finals, with a showdown against Spain or France now awaiting Paulo Bento’s men. A 12 point armband haul leaves Fantasy managers with a dilemma ahead of Germanyโs game against Greece this evening, though โ with Joachim Lowโs side expected to chalk up a comfortable victory, many are likely to gamble for enhanced returns.
Portugal 1 Czech Republic 0
Paulo Bento named the same XI that started all three group games yesterday evening. The 1-0 win earned Portugal their first clean sheet of the tournament and, with every member of the back-four picking up an extra point thanks to the recovered balls rule, Fantasy owners of the likes of Pepe and Fabio Coentrao benefitted from a seven point return. Pepe is now tied with Ronaldo as top scoring player for Portugal with 20 points, while Joao Pereira has proven to be the best value of Bentoโs players to date โ the 6.0 priced right-back has now accrued 17 points.
Joao Moutinho picked up his second assist in four games after supplying the cross for Ronaldoโs match-winner, though it was Raul Meireles who was his sideโs key creator; the Chelsea midfielder provided four goalscoring opportunities. Helder Postigaโs tournament may well be over after the forward was stretchered off with what looked like a hamstring injury โ he left the proceedings on 40 minutes having failed to manage a single attempt, with 7.4 priced Hugo Almeida set to be handed the lone striker role in Bentoโs 4-3-3 for the semi-final on Wednesday June 27.
Cristiano Ronaldo has an incredible 82% of the votes in the Captain Poll after his brace against Holland in the previous match and justified our faith with another outstanding attacking display. The Real Madrid man had eight attempts over the 90 minutes (Nani had three in comparison) and, in addition to finding the net, also hit the woodwork twice for the second game in succession.
For the Czech Republic, Michal Bilek made a single alteration from the side that saw off Poland in their final Group A match. With first-choice playmaker Tomas Rosicky still unavailable due to an Achilles problem, Bilek dropped Daniel Kolar and handed Vladimir Darida a start in โthe holeโ behind Milan Baros.
Mid-price midfielders Petr Jiracek and Vaclav Pilar had received plenty of investment prior to the match after bagging two goals apiece in the group stages but as an attacking force the Czechs were virtually non-existent and managed a mere two efforts over the entire match โ wary of their opponentsโ pace on the counter, they rarely committed many men forward and were content to sit back and frustrate. The tactic ultimately proved their undoing, with popular picks such as Petr Cech (26.8%), Pilar (27.4%) and Theodor Gebre Selassie (19.6%) all exiting the competition after a thoroughly insipid display.
