Portugal now know their fate: they’ll be heading through to the round-of-16 as Group F winners, following their comprehensive three-goal victory over Türkiye in Dortmund on Saturday. While they could be caught on points by the Turkish, their head-to-head victory ensures they are guaranteed the top spot – and the theoretically preferable draw that comes with it.
Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion played host to a thrilling match, with the action just as intense in the stands as it was on the pitch. Four pitch invaders infiltrated the field of play throughout the game, but Roberto Martínez did not let that detract from the brilliance of the Portuguese supporters when he spoke on the topic in his post-match press conference.
“Today at a given point, 10,000 Portuguese [fans] were louder than 50,000 Turkish fans,” he commented, adding that “personally, I’ve never felt anything like this. Never. It’s incredible.”
“The players felt energised, they knew that they could not afford to lose this game with all this energy coming from the stands.”
Bernardo Silva, named as the Player of the Match for his immense contributions, echoed Martínez’s views and highlighted that “there are a lot of Turkish immigrants in Germany, so we knew we’d be outnumbered in the stands – but we still felt tremendous support and at no point in the game did we feel that we were outnumbered.”
The Manchester City maestro netted his first goal at the EUROs, but he insisted that “it’s irrelevant whether it’s my first goal or not.”
“The important thing is that we won, we’re guaranteed first place in the group and we’re ready for the knockout stages… we were very good on the pitch today. They pressed high, we managed to control the game and their pressure, and we managed to control how dangerous they can be.”
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