Warning signs: first defeat of the Martinez era

The selection has changed greatly for the final eleven, with Felix and Ronaldo up front, the hybrid Danilo roaming between midfielder and third central. And Portugal got lost in this tactical dynamic. In numbers: zero. Zero shots on goal in 45 minutes.

The only two peaks of emotion were Diogo Costa’s senseless exit and Felix’s shot wide of the goal. At half-time, António Silva and Francisco Conceição came on as substitutes, but even their youth did not bring any different spirit: on the contrary, Silva’s mistake led to Slovenia’s first goal in the 52nd minute, saved by Diogo Costa.

During the game we saw something from Portugal there. Ronaldo shot wide, Inacio did the same with a header, and immediately after that Dalot did even worse. It was during this weaker period that the Seleção scored a goal… from Slovenia. A great game under the watchful eye of the Portuguese defence.

Felix responded with the ball hitting the post (75 minutes), but the worst soon happened. The dream gave way to complete drowsiness, and the treadmill lasted until the second easy goal of the Slovenians. Portugal is emerging from the state of nirvana of endless victories and waking up to alarming signals. Not everything is bad, but it is clear that not everything is good.

A DEBUT worth remembering
Chico Conceicao is a new name on the national team list and he even had one or two notable starts. Martinez’s only beautiful debut in his first defeat. The bright side: that’s what testing is for.

THAT WAS ALMOST ALL AND THAT’S MORE
Almost everything has failed, and almost everything that has failed is too much, even in certain situations at a certain point in time. It was a day of general siesta: a lack of offensive sharpness and an excess of defensive permissiveness.

PENALTY ON RONALDO
There are almost several moves in which Portugal are left to qualify for a penalty – in the 80th minute, Ronaldo even seems to press into the penalty area. Additionally, there were many technical and disciplinary failures throughout the game.

AND
Complete Euro 2024
Ukraine, Poland and Georgia complete the group of 24 qualifying for the Euros, beating Iceland (2-1), Wales (0-0 and 5-4 points) and Greece (0-0 and 4-2 points) in order. . .).

“There are positive notes”
“There are positive and negative aspects, the purpose of this internship was not to win, but to look at certain information from the players, conduct experiments and see other athletes. We saw how the team reacted to the goal. It was a test against a team that plays very closely,” said Roberto Martinez, who recorded his first defeat in 12 games.