Chapter 699 European Cup Sets Sail Again

After coming off the bench to help Manchester United advance to the FA Cup semi-finals, Bruno rushed back to Portugal. In the upcoming international match day, Portugal will usher in two European Cup qualifiers.

Although Portugal has qualified for next year's European Cup by advancing to the semi-finals of the UEFA Nations League, this does not mean that Portugal will not participate in the European Cup qualifiers.

In fact, the qualification for the European Cup obtained through the UEFA Nations League is more like a wild card, which guarantees that these four teams will get additional qualification to participate in next year's European Cup if they fail to qualify for the European Cup through the European Cup qualifiers.

Whether it is Portugal, or the other three teams that advanced to the UEFA Nations League A, the Netherlands, Switzerland and England, they all need to participate in the qualifiers normally.

The group draw for the qualifiers took place on December 12 last year. Since all matches of this European Cup will be held in 2 cities in 12 countries, there is no such thing as a host country for this tournament. All 13 UEFA member countries will participate in the qualifying stage.

The qualifying draw was divided into six tiers based on the results of the UEFA Nations League. The top four teams in the UEFA Nations League A League, England, the Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland, became the seeded teams and entered Groups A to D. The other six teams with better results, Belgium, Croatia, France, Italy, Poland and Spain, became the seeded teams for the remaining six groups.

最终55支球队被分为10个小组，其中第一至第五组每组5支球队，第六至第十组每组6支球队。每个小组的前两名一共20支球队直接晋级正赛。

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If the four group winners of the UEFA Nations League A, namely Portugal, the Netherlands, Switzerland and England, fail to enter the top two of each group, they will occupy one of the remaining four places.

If all four teams rank in the top two of their groups, then the 10 third-placed teams and the six fourth-placed teams with better results, a total of 6 teams, will play two rounds of play-offs to decide the remaining four places.

If one or several of the four teams fail to qualify directly through the group stage and occupy one or several of the four places, a corresponding play-off system will be formulated.

Of course, if by any chance all four teams fail to rank in the top two in the group stage, then the four teams will occupy four extra places and there will be no need for a play-off.

However, this possibility is extremely small. After all, the strength of these four teams is top-notch in Europe.

Of course, many avoidance rules must be followed during the draw process. For example, there will be no more than three host teams in each group in the qualifiers; Gibraltar and Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, Kosovo and Serbia will not be in the same group; due to the cold winter conditions, the Faroe Islands, Finland, and Iceland will not schedule games in March and November 3, and Russia, Norway and other seven countries will try to arrange as few home games as possible in March and November 2019; taking into account the factor of long-distance flight, each group will only arrange at most one team that may need to fly long distances, such as Iceland and Azerbaijan.

After the draw, Portugal, as a seeded team, finally entered Group B, in the same group as Ukraine, Serbia, Lithuania and Luxembourg.

For Portugal, this is undoubtedly a good draw result. The strength of the opponents in the same group is not too strong. Only Ukraine and Serbia have certain strength. The two small countries of Lithuania and Luxembourg are completely weak teams. They are basically given to the other three teams to score goals.

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The Portuguese national team will have two games during this international match day, against Ukraine and Serbia respectively. This makes this international match day very critical for Portugal. After all, these two opponents are also Portugal's strongest competitors in the group stage.

Of course, Portugal can also give up. After all, as one of the four group winners in the UEFA Nations League A, they can still participate in next year's European Cup even if they finish last in the group stage.

However, anyone with a little sense of shame would not do this because it would be too embarrassing.

Especially since Portugal is currently the world's top-ranked team and has won the European Cup, Confederations Cup and World Cup in the past three years. If they were to finish last in the qualifying group, it would be a disgrace to the whole world.

In fact, the Portuguese attach great importance to the group stage. Even Cristiano Ronaldo, who has been away from the national team for half a year, has been called up again and will participate in the next national team competition.

Santos also sent out all its main players in the first group match against Ukraine. The goalkeeper was Patricio, Cancelo, Pepe, Ruben Dias and Guerrero formed the defense line, the midfield trio was Ruben Neves, William Carvalho and Bruno, and Ronaldo formed a forward trident with Andre Silva and Bernardo Silva.

Ukraine, playing away, lined up in a 4141 formation, with goalkeeper Piatov, Karavayev, Krivtsov, Matviyenko and Mykolenko forming the back line, Stepanenko playing as the single defensive midfielder, Maros, Zinchenko, Malinovsky, and Konoplyanka forming the forward line, and Yaremchuk as the lone striker.

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After the game started, Portugal quickly took the advantage on the field. They attacked like a tide and frequently threatened Ukraine's goal. However, Ukraine's defense was also very solid and did not give many opportunities to the Portuguese attacking group led by Ronaldo and Bruno.

In the end, both sides drew 0:0 in the first half.

However, shortly after the start of the second half, Ukraine's city was lost.

In the 63rd minute, Ronaldo received a cross from Bruno in front of the goal and scored the first goal for Portugal.

This was definitely a selfless pass, because Bruno himself was in a very good starting position, but he chose Ronaldo who was in a better position, so after scoring the goal, Ronaldo rushed towards Bruno first.

Ten minutes later, Bernardo Silva received a pass from Bruno at the back post and scored again.

In the final stage of the game, Portugal got a good opportunity. Ronaldo unexpectedly gave the penalty opportunity to Bruno, and Bruno did not disappoint. He took a perfect free kick to break the Ukrainian goal and score another goal for Portugal.

In the end, the Five Shields defeated Ukraine 3:0 at home and got off to a good start in the European Cup qualifiers.

Bruno was closely guarded by Ukraine throughout the game, and Ukrainian head coach Shevchenko tailored a set of defensive tactics for him. But Bruno still scored a goal through a free kick opportunity and sent two very crucial assists, leading Portugal to a 3-0 victory over Ukraine by himself.

Moreover, his selfless assist to Ronaldo was unanimously recognized by the media, fans and teammates.