Group H - R1 - Portugal 3-2 Ghana - Thursday 24th November, 2022

[Mel81x+]

Just now, Danny said:

yeah that pen was outrageous, watched it in slomo about 7 times and cant see the contact

Thats because there is none its a dive.

[Stan]

1 minute ago, Danny said:

yeah that pen was outrageous, watched it in slomo about 7 times and cant see the contact

Not even just that. The fake screams from Fernandes, Silva, Ronaldo, Cancelo are unbearable. 

[Stan]

3-2! Makes it a bit more interesting. 

Bukari doing Ronaldo's celebration

 

[El Profesor]

Wait. Has Bukari just done the Ronaldo SIU? That's some legendary trolling.

[Stan]

2 minutes ago, El Profesor said:

Wait. Has Bukari just done the Ronaldo SIU? That's some legendary trolling.

Yep! Didn't quite pull it off but Ronaldo's face was a picture as the camera panned to him. 

[6666]

Great second half after a nothing first half.

[Stan]

Ghana missed their chance! 

What a time to slip

 

[6666]

If only Inaki didn't slip!

[Spike]

Great game.

[Mel81x+]

Drama and some very funny football moments. The good news is Portugal are top of the group and after watching the other two teams today I think they'll trump one of them.

[El Profesor]

1 minute ago, 6666 said:

If only Inaki didn't slip!

I swear I thought he played for Spain. He's certainly good enough to be in the spanish side.

[Stan]

1 minute ago, El Profesor said:

I swear I thought he played for Spain. He's certainly good enough to be in the spanish side.

His brother does. 

[Spike]

3 minutes ago, El Profesor said:

I swear I thought he played for Spain. He's certainly good enough to be in the spanish side.

 

1 minute ago, Stan said:

His brother does. 

Well his brother does, and Inaki did play for Spain too.

[6666]

This is surely gonna become a meme.

 

[Waylander]

Good second half after a cagey first half.

Right team won for me despite their play acting of having a head injury every time they were fouled. 

 

[Lucas]

That's one of the softest penalties known to man. Very hard to get into these games when the decisions are becoming more and more daft.

The organisers obviously wanted Ronaldo to get his record breaking 5th goal in as many World Cups and set a record in Qatar but allowing a penalty that didn't even get a thorough VAR check (and let's be honest, even after 4 or 5 views you can't make a case for it) was bent.

The only other annoying thing is Ghana done fuck all till they were 1-0 down. They clearly carried a threat, why wait as long as they did to attack?

[Machado]

That went just about as expected.

We're shit defensively and have been for around two years now, despite the annoying conservative approach. Santos doesn't even have that going for him these days.

Himself and Ronaldo need to go for something to change. This is more of the same.

We do well on the counter mostly because we have the players for that in Leão and Félix. Everything else makes my eyes hurt.

Neves need the bench. Has a shot in him but lacking in every other department. Not a real DM either. Cancelo is a brilliant player but doesn't seem to give a fuck. Both himself and Bernardo seems frustrated at times. Imagine going from Pep Guardiola to this.

We're not going anywhere in this tournament. No chance.

[Michael]

Plenty of goals in this match, but all of them came in the 2nd half, after an uneventful 1st half. Ronaldo won and scored a penalty to give Portugal the lead. Ghana equalised through Ayew, when he tucked home Kudus's deflected cross from close range, with his right foot. Portugal though, regained the lead soon after that, as Bruno Fernandes delivered a through ball, that found Joao Felix, who made no mistake in scoring. Soon after that, Rafael Leao side footed in a 3rd goal, after another through ball by Fernandes. Ghana pulled a goal back through a Bukhari header in the 89th minute, but Portugal managed to hang on, and secure their 3-2 win.                                                                       

[Michael]

5 hours ago, Machado said:

That went just about as expected.

We're shit defensively and have been for around two years now, despite the annoying conservative approach. Santos doesn't even have that going for him these days.

Himself and Ronaldo need to go for something to change. This is more of the same.

We do well on the counter mostly because we have the players for that in Leão and Félix. Everything else makes my eyes hurt.

Neves need the bench. Has a shot in him but lacking in every other department. Not a real DM either. Cancelo is a brilliant player but doesn't seem to give a fuck. Both himself and Bernardo seems frustrated at times. Imagine going from Pep Guardiola to this.

We're not going anywhere in this tournament. No chance.

It's a bit of a surprise that the teams defence isn't great. A backline of Raphael Guerreiro, Danilo Pereira, Ruben Dias and Cancelo would be a dream for most coaches.

[Machado]

3 hours ago, Michael said:

It's a bit of a surprise that the teams defence isn't great. A backline of Raphael Guerreiro, Danilo Pereira, Ruben Dias and Cancelo would be a dream for most coaches.

I've never had a bad word for Guerreiro. He's so solid.

Danilo and Dias didn't seem to work as a partnership, but I don't have a specific complaint about either. Cancelo is a pure playmaker, I just don't expect much from him defensively. Probably played his whole career in the wrong position.

They all just seemed a bit lost. Possibly outpaced and/or surprised by Ghana's tenacity in the attack. Could be a tactical issue too. All I know is they didn't click at all.