Portugal — Czech Republic: The Portuguese Mixer (2-1)
Portugal’s choice to start three fullbacks was a defensive decision. Their intention was to trap Czechia in their own end while remaining flexible enough to either go forward or defend the counter because Czechia wanted to attack.
Written by Kyle Boas.
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The Czech Republic’s lineup included Jindřich Staněk in goal, with Vladimír Coufal, Tomáš Holeš, Robin Hranáč, Ladislav Krejčí, and David Douděra in defense. Tomáš Souček, Lukáš Provod, and Pavel Šulc played in midfield. Patrick Schick and Jan Kuchta featured up front.
As we discussed in our Portugal preview for the tournament, they will use either a back-four or back-five. Against Czechia, they went with a hybrid between the two structures.
Portugal’s lineup included Diogo Costa in goal, with Joaõ Cancelo, Nuno Mendes, Pepe, Ruben Dias, and Diogo Dalot in defense. Vitinha, Bernardo Silva, and Bruno Fernandes played in midfield. Rafael Leaõ starts central with Cristiano Ronald up front, then drifts wide left to maintain width on the left-wing when the fullbacks invert or move forward up the wing. They used this system, with some different personnel, against Ireland in their final friendly before the Euro’s started.
Portugal’s choice to start Jõao Cancelo over Jõao Palhinha
Nuno Mendes was a quote-on-quote “surprise pick” to play left center-back because normally Gonçalo Inácio is first choice on the left when Portugal are in a back-five, but Portugal wanted a mix of both defense and attack. Nuno Mendes normally moves to left center-back in-possession from left-back when Portugal play in a back-four, but with the inclusion of Jõao Cancelo at left-back, Mendes was forced to “start at left center-back.”
Nuno Mendes provides more pace, whether defending on the counter or attacking directly down the wing, when compared to Gonçalo Inácio. Inácio is a natural center-back and a better distributor of the ball.
Because Jõao Cancelo starts, Jõao Palhinha, who normally plays in the midfield as the number six, is left out of the lineup. No one would bat an eye at the decision to play Nuno Mendes if Palhinha started ahead of Cancelo because Nuno Mendes would be listed as a left-back on the teamsheet in a back-four.
The inclusion of Jõao Cancelo over Jõao Palhinha or Ruben Neves means they have a full-back that can rotate with Nuno Mendes, invert infield to rotate with the midfielders, or bomb down the wing to combine with Rafael Leaõ.
This is the flexibility that Portugal offers Roberto Martinez. He has the ability to mold the team into whatever shape he would like due to the versatility of position and intelligence of each player at his disposal. It is a blessing and a curse because the players, the fans, and probably even Martinez do not know what their best eleven is. Compare and contrast that to Germany, all of their players know their roles.
Czechia manager Ivan Hašek said before the match, “All we know is that if we’re not active, if we don’t have the ball, and only defend, that’s not something that will lead to success. It would just be easier to leave the pitch all together, so we need to be courageous; we need to be active, and play, and go forward.”
Roberto Martinez knew about Czechia’s mentality from prior experience playing against them. He said before the match, “I think their style is very very clear. I’ve played three times against them, and while the tactical structure can change, if they play four at the back or five at the back, it can change, but I like their style. They have high pressure, they take risks, and they want to score. […] They play to win; they like to take risks, and I think this is going to be a wonderful game for the neutral fans.”
Rather than Portugal choosing to stick to a back-four or back-five, they instead chose a more flexible hybrid between the two. Jõao Cancelo and/or Diogo Dalot can stay back as wing-backs; Nuno Mendes has the license to get forward if he wants because Pepe and Ruben Dias are back to defend; and Jõao Cancelo can cover for him.
The Portuguese Mixer
Portugal and Czechia’s formation when Portugal were in possession.
Diogo Dalot moves high up the right wing from right-back, and Portugal form a back-three. Jõao Cancelo has the choice to either stay wide, invert infield, or move upfield towards Rafael Leaõ. He often chose to invert infield.
The midfield is a blender, with Vitinha, Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes, and Cancelo all interchanging positions. Bernardo Silva would often look to move out wide right when Jõao Cancelo inverted from the left. He provided cover for the defense, serving as a right-back, when Dalot got forward.
The choice to not include either Jõao Palhinha or Ruben Neves now makes sense because Portugal wants to control the permitter. They allowed Czechia to sit centrally defensively, but they constantly moved the ball towards the opponent’s penalty area. It did not seem like they lacked a deep passer of the ball. There was no set structure in midfield; they constantly changed positions. If Jõao Palhinha started, he wouldn’t offer the same dynamism as Jõao Cancelo, Vitinha, or Bernardo Silva.
Czechia Score
In the first half and to start the second half, Portugal created chances to score, but it was slow going. Once they got into Czechia’s half, they looked to play vertically. There was not much combination play between the players on the ground. Rafael Leaõ had limited space to drive at his defender on the left-wing.
In the 62nd minute, the ball ended up on the left wing in Portugal’s half. David Doudera swung in a cross that fell to Vladimír Coufal. Coufal laid the ball off into the path of Lukáš Provod on the edge of the box, and Provod launced it into the left side of the net past Diogo Costa. This was a shock goal from Czechia’s first shot on target in the game.
There was a substitution a minute prior from Czechia, with Ondrej Lingr and Mojmir Chytil coming on for Jan Kuchta and Patrik Schick, but the goal wasn’t a direct result of any change. The ball fell to the right man at the right time.
Portugal and Czechia’s formation when Portugal made changes after Lukáš Provod’s goal.
This goal lit a fire under Portugal, as there was now a sense of urgency to score; to not become the first tournament favorite to lose a group stage match. They made several changes in the 63rd minute to switch things up and create a higher volume of high-quality chances.
Goncalo Inacio and Diogo Jota came on for Diogo Dalot and Rafael Leaõ. Jõao Cancelo moved to right-back, and Nuno Mendes moved up the left-wing to allow Diogo Jota to invert from the left-wing. Jota is better in tighter spaces when compared to Leaõ, Diogo Dalot wasn’t providing much threat down the right-wing, and Inacio could provide chipped passes from deep into the wings or box.
Six minutes after those changes, Portugal equalized. Vitinha swings in a cross to the back post to Nuno Mendes, who heads it down in the direction of the goalkeeper’s feet, and it awkwardly gets deflected off his own defender Robin Hranac’s knee in for an own goal.
After a goal by Diogo Jota was disallowed for offside in the 87th minute, Portugal became desperate and made last-minute substitutions in the 90th minute to try to steal the three points away from Czechia. On came Nelson Semedo for the now-tired Jõao Cancelo, Pedro Neto for Nuno Mendes to dribble down the left-wing, and Franciso Conceição for Vitinha to provide more energy in the forward line.
That change again was immediately met with a response in the form of a goal, which came in the 92nd minute. The ball was passed down the wing from Inacio to Pedro Neto. Pedro Neto dribbles past his man, fires in a cross, the defender misques his control, it goes through his legs into the path of Conceição, and he taps in the winning goal. All three substitutes combined to score.
Takeaways
Czechia are one of the weakest teams in the tournament, but I think Portugal are just that good at retaining possession and controlling play. You can’t say Portugal did not have chances to score in the match, and Czechia certainly did try to attack. Portugal was well set up to defend each attempted counterattack. If one of those chances goes in the first half, maybe we would have thought more highly of Roberto Martinez’s choices and less about the result.
Czechia were courageous in the way they went about things, but the gap in quality was too large. Portugal did accomplish their goal of pinning Czechia back in their own half, controlling the permitter, and limiting the effectiveness of the opponent’s counterattack.
Even though there was a lot of rotation and movement within Portugal’s midfield, I would have liked to see more one-twos in the midfield and on the wings. They are not rigid in structure, but the players can become stiff around the final third. There are a lot of unnecessary slow touches, and there is a lack of combination play. They space themselves far apart; therefore, they will look for the long vertical ball. They are not afraid of losing the ball; taking risks is good, but the way in which they lose the ball is sometimes silly.
This is not the Portugal of previous tournaments filled with drama and chaos in their camp. The players are all very unselfish with the ball, and they appear to get along off the pitch. As they rotate players off the bench and play in a more conventional way with Jõao Palhinha or Ruben Neves at the base of midfield, they should see more stability.
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