The ‘heroes of the sea’, who aim to replicate, or even improve, the sixth place achieved in the 2020 edition, in their ninth participation in the European finals, will have the decisive game, on Tuesday, against four-time world champions Denmark, who today face Romania and could ‘seal’ their passage to the ‘main round’.
As with the victorious debut, against Romania (40-34), the start of the game was not as desired, despite Portugal scoring the first goal through center Victor Iturriza, at Jyske Bank Boxen, located in the Danish city of Herning.
And one of those responsible for the less good start of the ‘heroes of the sea’ was the former Benfica and FC Porto goalkeeper Nikola Mitrevski, who stopped two shots from the Portuguese, which revealed some problems in stopping the opponent’s attacks.
On the other side, the Macedonians showed aggression in defending and ‘hit’ the Portuguese, but the direct red shown to the giant Markovski, after being reckless with Francisco Costa, left the Balkan team without an important element.
Even so, the game in the second round of Group B remained balanced until rest time, with neither team managing to take a shot on the scoreboard, nor Capdeville’s various defenses and the advantage of attacking with seven players, leaving Portugal more relaxed at half-time, as the difference was just two goals (15-13).
Paulo Jorge Pereira was determined to maintain the seven-on-six system in attack, however, it was the three wasted attacks by North Macedonia to open the second half that allowed Portugal to finally breathe a sigh of relief.
From here on, Portugal had a comfortable ‘cushion’ of four and five goals, with right-back Francisco Costa, unlike the uninspired Martim, standing out in penetrations from six meters, as well as taking free kicks from seven meters.
Without throwing in the towel, the Macedonians went all out in search of victory and, in the last minutes, closed the gap on the scoreboard, largely due to the fine aim of full-back Filip Kuzmanovski – he finished the game with 15 goals.
The uncertainty regarding the scorer remained until the end, but North Macedonia’s aggressiveness in defending was crucial, as were the almost successive failures of Martim Costa and Leonel Fernandes from six meters, with just a few seconds remaining.
Goalkeeper Pedro Tonicher and defender Filipe Monteiro, who had been left out against the Romanians, were left off the game sheet today.
On Tuesday, at 7:30 pm (Lisbon time), the ‘heroes of the sea’ face Denmark, hosts and four-time world champions.
Jogo na Jyske Bank Boxen, em Herning.
North Macedonia – Portugal, 29-29.
At half-time: 13-15.
With refereeing from Amar Konjicanin and Dino Konjicanin, both from Bosnia-Herzegovina, the teams lined up and scored:
– Macedonia do Norte (29): Mitrevski, Nenad Kosteski, Velkovski (4), Stojkovikj (2), Marko Mitev (1), Djonov (1) and Kuzmanovski (15).
Jogaram ainda Tomovski, Gjorgiev, Nikola Kosteski, Petar Atanasijevikj, Markoski, Alarov, Peshevski (1), Kuzmanovski, Serafimov (1) and Pavle Atanasijevikj (4).
Selectioner: Kiril Lazarov.
– Portugal (29): Gustavo Capdeville, Rui Silva (2), Francisco Costa (11), Salvador (2), Iturriza (5), António Areia (2) and Diogo Branquinho.
Luís Frade (3), Leonel Fernandes (1), Miguel Neves, João Gomes, Martim Costa (2), José Ferreira (1) and Diogo Valério also played.
Coach: Paulo Jorge Pereira.
Attendance: 11,438 spectators.
