Portugal 5-2 Sweden (Mar 21, 2024) Recreation Evaluation – ESPN

Portugal swept previous Sweden 5-2 in a pleasant on Thursday as supervisor Roberto Martinez rested Cristiano Ronaldo and a number of other different key gamers within the build-up to the European Championship in Germany, which begins in June.
The Portuguese stormed into the Euro 2024 finals by successful all 10 of their qualifiers, with Thursday’s end result making it 11 wins in a row.
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“It was a very good and vital check for us,” Martinez advised reporters after the sport. “Sweden have excellent strikers. We labored on defensive ideas and it was a very good experiment.
“There are different ideas that we have to work on and enhance in our subsequent recreation at Slovenia. It was nice to play in opposition to a gifted workforce of this stage.”
Martinez’s facet opened a three-goal lead within the first half due to strikes by Rafael Leão, Matheus Nunes and Bruno Fernandes.
Leao opened the scoring within the twenty fourth minute, firing a superb strike into the highest nook from a rebound after Bernardo Silva burst into the field and unleashed a curling shot off the submit.
Within the thirty third minute, Manchester Metropolis midfielder Nunes sliced via the Swedish defence earlier than darting a low strike simply inside the fitting submit to increase the locals’ lead at Guimaraes, earlier than Fernandes tapped in a close-range effort from a Nelson Semedo cross within the final play of the half.
Substitute Bruma prolonged their lead with first-touch effort within the 57th minute, however Viktor Gyökeres hit again for Sweden from close-range a minute later.
Goncalo Ramos struck from contained in the field within the 62nd minute to increase Portugal’s lead earlier than Sweden’s Gustaf Nilsson netted a stoppage time header within the final play of the match.
Portugal will face Slovenia on Tuesday, with Martinez set to usher in Ronaldo amongst a bunch of modifications.
“The gamers that may relaxation within the the subsequent recreation are Bernardo Silva, Rúben Dias, João Palhinha, Nélson Semedo, Tote Gomes, Rafael Leão, Bruno Fernandes and Goncalo Ramos.
“Therefore, eight gamers will go away and one other eight gamers will arrive at a excessive stage for the second recreation, with starvation and lots of power, I hope.”
Info from ESPN’s Adriana Garcia and Reuters contributed to this report.

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