Chapter 700: Victory Is Always Fascinating

Three days later, Portugal continued to play at home against another strong opponent in the group, Serbia.

Compared with the first game, Santos made personnel adjustments. In the midfield, Porto midfielder Danilo Pereira replaced Ruben Neves in the starting lineup. In the frontcourt, replacing Andre Silva, Brazilian naturalized center forward Diego Sousa started for the first time. Three days ago against Serbia, he replaced the Sevilla striker in the 73rd minute and made his national team debut.

Against Serbia, Portugal played 433, with William Carvalho as a single defensive midfielder. Against Serbia, the Five Shields changed to double defensive midfielders, and the formation became 442. Santos used double defensive midfielders to completely liberate the Portuguese team's frontcourt.

Compared with the first game, Bruno had a higher degree of freedom, or it can be said to be absolutely free. He was left, right, and center.

Since the World Cup in Russia, Portugal has been unbeaten in 7 games and ranked first by FIFA. But Serbia, ranked 31st, is not to be trifled with. After losing to Brazil 0:2 in the last match of the World Cup group stage, they also went 7 games without losing, and even tied with the powerful German team in the warm-up match on March 20.

In another match of this round earlier, Serbia defeated Luxembourg away. Luxembourg won 2:1 at home against Lithuania in the first round and also got 3 points. Therefore, in the match between Portugal and Serbia, both the host and the visiting team that had a bye in the first round wanted to win.

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In the 4th minute, Joao Cancelo made a cross, and there was chaos in the Serbian penalty area. William Carvalho had a very good chance, but he missed the ball in the face of a half-empty goal.

Portugal didn't score an empty goal, and Serbia immediately responded with punishment.

In the 7th minute, Tadic made a lob pass to the penalty area, and Gasinovic rushed over and made a lob shot.

The ball didn't go in, but Patricio, who was attacking, knocked down the Serbian midfielder.

The referee awarded a penalty kick, Tadic scored with his left foot, but the Portuguese goalkeeper didn't judge the direction correctly.

After losing the ball early, the Portuguese team was anxious and launched a crazy attack.

In the 10th minute, Ronaldo dribbled past the opponent's defender at the front of the penalty area and shot hard, but the ball was saved by Dmitrovic.

In the 16th minute, Bruno shot in the penalty area, but was saved by the Serbian goalkeeper.

In the 23rd minute, Portugal made a cross from the left, Bruno made a scorpion pass to the front of the goal, Ronaldo's shot was blocked by Milenkovic, and Milenkovic brought Ronaldo down after falling to the ground. The referee did not call a foul, and Ronaldo was very angry.

The Portuguese team controlled the situation on the field, but it couldn't find a way to score.

In the 28th minute, Portugal made a long pass, and Ronaldo fell to the ground after chasing the ball in the frontcourt. After falling to the ground, he touched the captain's armband on his right arm.

From that action, it can be seen that his injury was not light, and he was mentally prepared to leave the field.

The team doctor gave Ronaldo a simple treatment on the sidelines, but he could no longer hold on. In the 30th minute, Ronaldo left the field and Benfica midfielder Pizzi replaced him.

When he left the field, Ronaldo handed the captain's armband to Bruno. He applauded the fans at the Stadium of Light, and the fans also gave him warm applause.

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After Ronaldo left the field, the Portuguese team did not seem to be affected, and the attack continued in waves.

Throughout the first half, the speed of both sides was very fast, and the competition was extremely fierce, giving people a feeling of being overwhelmed.

In the 42nd minute, Bruno got the ball in the midfield. He dribbled forward and four Sevilla players came forward to intercept. In the process, Bruno had a pause. Then he accelerated again and shot a powerful shot at the front of the penalty area, and the ball flew straight to the Serbian team's goal.

This was Bruno's 60th goal in his 51st appearance for the Portuguese national team!

The score on the field was also rewritten to 1:1!

After the start of the second half, the rhythm of both teams slowed down a bit.

Portugal still couldn't find a way to score. In the 57th minute, Santos replaced Diego Sousa with Andre Silva.

Portugal controlled the midfield, but couldn't get into the opponent's penalty area. Sometimes they could only rely on long shots. I don't know if it was a lack of tacit understanding or other reasons. After Bruno passed the ball into the opponent's penalty area again and again, no teammates could touch it, let alone shoot.

In the 71st minute, Bruno made a cross from the left side of the penalty area. Andre Silva headed the ball to the back point. Bernardo Silva knocked in front of the goal. Pizzi made a close-range shovel shot, but the ball was blocked by Rukavina on the goal line.

The most controversial scene of the whole game occurred in the 73rd minute. Bruno made a cross from the right, and Andre Silva headed the ball from the left side of the penalty area. The ball hit the open arm of Serbia's right back Rukavina.

This was a very obvious handball in the penalty area, but after discussing with the linesman, the referee did not award a penalty, and the protests of the Portuguese players and Santos on the sidelines were ineffective.

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The Portuguese team still did not give up. At the Luz Stadium, they struggled to pursue victory and light.

In the 84th minute, Gonzalo Guedes replaced Danilo Pereira, and Santos decided to make a last-ditch effort.

The Portuguese's efforts were rewarded before the end of the game.

Serbia set up a formation in the 30-meter area in front of the penalty area. Guedes failed to attack on the right and was forced to pass back to Cancelo.

After the right back came up, he took a look at the penalty area. There were people everywhere and he couldn't score at all.

At this time, Bruno in the middle suddenly retreated from the front and raised his hand to ask for the ball.

Cancelo passed the ball with one foot and sent the ball to Bruno's feet.

Bruno stopped with his chest and moved diagonally to the left.

Serbia's right back Rukavina quickly rushed up and tightly wrapped around Bruno, while Radonjic in the middle also quickly came over.

One-on-one, Serbian players could not defend Bruno, so Krstajic asked the players to pay attention to assisting defense.

The same situation has occurred many times in previous games, but this time it was a little different.

As the ball was quickly transferred from the right to the left, Serbia's entire defense line was also moving quickly. Radonjic was unable to double-team Rukavina as before, and he had to be a little slower.

Bruno had been waiting for an opportunity. When he realized that there was a gap between Rukavina and Radonjic, he would never miss such an opportunity, and he immediately chose to quickly dribble the ball and attack.

He started very quickly, and moved diagonally towards the penalty area. Rukavina was standing to the left, and Radonjic was one step away. Although the two Serbian defenders reacted at the same time, Bruno still caught the only gap and rushed out of the double-team of the two defenders with the ball at the fastest speed.

The whole process is long, but it actually happened in one or two seconds. Andy Gray of Sky TV, who was responsible for the on-site commentary, didn't even have time to react.

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"Cancelo made a large transfer, hand it over to Bruno!"

"Bruno dribbled the ball... and broke through!"

"Beautiful!"

"Bruno was very fast, dribbled the ball out from between the two Serbian defenders and rushed to the front of the penalty area!"

……

Spajic gave up Andre Silva at the first time and decisively rushed to force Bruno to prevent him from rushing into the penalty area.

But just as the Serbian central defender rushed to Bruno's vicinity, he felt Bruno suddenly stop, and then he felt the figure in front of him flash. It seemed that Bruno was going to continue to cut to the middle. Spajic immediately blocked it, but unexpectedly, Bruno dribbled with his right foot.

"Bruno's clever pass, dribbled past Spajic!"

After dribbling past Spajic, Bruno rushed into the penalty area at the fastest speed.

Dmitrovic's reaction was very fast. When Cancelo transferred and Bruno attacked with the ball, he had already moved his position to the right side of the goal, blocking Bruno's shooting angle to the maximum extent.

But Bruno was too fast when he dribbled past Spajic, and then Bruno's explosive power in rushing into the penalty area was also very fast, which caught Dmitrovic off guard. When he reacted, Bruno was already at the front of the small penalty area, and he pushed out a ground ball with the outside of his right foot, which quickly slid past the left side of Dmitrovic's body.

Although the Serbian goalkeeper reacted quickly, he still missed the ball.

Maradenovic quickly chased back and caught up with the ball in front of the goal line. He slid to clear the ball, but the final result was that he slid into the goal and the ball also hit the goal line.

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"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!"

"The ball is in!!!!"

"In the 87th minute, Portugal finally scored another goal!"

"Bruno scored again!"

"Bruno scored twice! Bruno scored a wonderful goal and once again penetrated the Serbian goal!"

The whole Stadium of Light cheered loudly!

Bruno turned around and rushed out of the stadium excitedly, running all the way, with his hands stretched as far as possible. He was like a glider, flying on the lawn of the Stadium of Light, and finally slid to his knees in the corner area.

He was already sweating profusely, but his expression was extremely excited.

Scored twice!

He enjoyed the feeling of scoring a goal!

Soon, Pepe and other teammates also rushed over.

The veteran defender of the Portuguese national team hugged Bruno from behind, laughing loudly, looking extremely excited, and even happier than when he scored a goal.

Including Bernardo Silva, Gonzalo Guedes, Cancelo... All Portuguese players rushed over to celebrate Bruno's goal.

Scoring a goal at this time basically means that Portugal has completed the final kill and won the game again.

Consecutive defeats of Ukraine and Serbia are very important for Portugal to compete for the group qualification, especially the first place in the group.

Although Portugal has already qualified for the European Cup through the UEFA Nations League, victory is always so fascinating!