The first round of the European Championship will close tonight from 21:00 Portugal and the Czech Republic. It will be their fourth meeting at the Euro, and so far the Portuguese have been more successful...
The Portuguese, with new coach Roberto Martinez, breezed through their qualifying group. They achieved a maximum of ten victories with a goal difference of 36:2, and Ronaldo was the best scorer along the way. Bruno Fernandes also found great form in the national team, who scored six goals with seven assists in the qualifiers.
They failed in the last three major competitions, but regardless, they come to the European Championship as one of the biggest favorites.
The Czechs are regular participants in European championships. Since independence, they have had seven opportunities to play in the World Cup, and have qualified only once, while they have yet to miss the Euros. The Czech Republic had two golden generations that in some part even intertwined, and they reached the final in 1996, and the semi-final in 2004.
After that, the Czechs were stopped twice in the group, and twice they reached the quarterfinals. They were lucky in the qualifiers because they were placed in one of the weakest groups, and there they finished second with the same number of points as the first Albania. Before that, they were relegated from League A, the League of Nations, but they performed promisingly in the preparatory games for the Euro.
In March, they beat Norway away from home with 2:1, they beat Armenia at home with the same result a few days later, and they continued to win in June. Malta scored seven goals, and beat North Macedonia 2:1.
Interestingly, the Czech Republic lost its coach in January. Jaroslav Šilhavy left the bench after more than five years and took over the national team of Oman. Ivan Hašek is 100% for now and it remains to be seen what his national team will look like.
For me, Portugal is muc better team and expect easy win for Portula. Ronaldo is motivated, Portugal is motivated and play very good