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 without stopping. In the upcoming international match day, Portugal will usher in two European Cup qualifiers.

Although Portugal has qualified for the European Cup next year by advancing to the top four of the European 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 European League is more like a wild card, which is to ensure that these four teams will be qualified for the European Cup next year if they cannot qualify for the European Cup through the European Cup qualifiers.

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

The group draw for the qualifiers was held on December 2 last year. Since all the matches of this European Cup will be held in 13 cities in 12 countries, there is no host country for this tournament. All 55 UEFA member countries will participate in the qualifying stage.

The qualifying draw was divided into 6 levels according to 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 6 teams with better results, Belgium, Croatia, France, Italy, Poland and Spain, became the seeded teams for the remaining 6 groups.

Finally, 55 teams were divided into 10 groups, with 5 teams in each of the first to fifth groups and 6 teams in each of the sixth to tenth groups. The top two teams in each group, a total of 20 teams, directly advanced to the finals.

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If the top four teams in the UEFA Nations League A League, that is, Portugal, the Netherlands, Switzerland and England, fail to enter the top two of each group, they will occupy one of the remaining 4 places.

If all four teams rank in the top two of the group, then the 10 third-placed teams and the 6 fourth-placed teams with better results, a total of 16 teams, will play two rounds of playoffs to determine the remaining 4 places.

If one or more of the four teams cannot directly advance through the group stage and occupy one or more of the four places, a corresponding play-off system will be formulated.

Of course, if the four teams fail to rank in the top two in the group stage, the four teams will occupy four additional places and there will be no need for play-offs.

However, this possibility is extremely small, after all, the strength of these four teams is first-class in Europe.

Of course, in the process of drawing lots, many avoidance rules must be followed, such as there will be no more than three host teams in each group of the qualifiers; Gibraltar and Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, Kosovo and Serbia will not be divided into the same group; due to the cold winter conditions, the Faroe Islands, Finland, and Iceland will not arrange games in March and November 2019, and Russia, Norway and other seven countries will try to arrange as few home games in March and November 2019 as possible; considering the long-distance flight factor, 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 with 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. Lithuania and Luxembourg, two small countries, are completely weak, 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, the opponents are Ukraine and Serbia respectively, which also 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 be rotten. After all, as one of the four group leaders in the European Nations League A League, even if they are at the bottom of the group stage, they can still participate in the European Cup next year.

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

Especially since Portugal is currently the world's number one 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 group in the qualifiers, they would be embarrassed in front of the whole world.

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

Santos also sent out all the 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 Cristiano Ronaldo formed the front trident with Andre Silva and Bernardo Silva.

Ukraine, playing away, lined up a 4141 formation, with goalkeeper Piatov, Karavayev, Krivtsov, Matviyenko and Mikolenko forming the back line, Stepanenko playing as a single defensive midfielder, Marlos, Zinchenko, Malinovsky, and Konoplyanka forming the forward line, and Yaremchuk forming a single arrow forward.

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After the game started, Portugal quickly took advantage of 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, the two sides drew 0:0 in the first half.

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

In the 63rd minute, Ronaldo received a cross pass 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, Ronaldo rushed to Bruno first.

And ten minutes later, Bernardo Silva received Bruno's pass at the back point and scored again.

In the final stage of the game, Portugal got a good opportunity in a good position. Ronaldo unexpectedly gave the main penalty opportunity to Bruno, and Bruno did not disappoint. He took a perfect free kick and broke the Ukrainian goal, scoring 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 Ukraine's 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 critical assists. He led Portugal to a three-goal victory over Ukraine on his own.

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