Portugal coach Fernando Santos safe for now, 'guarantees' World Cup qualification via play-offs
APOLOGY: Portugal's coach Fernando Santos says he understands the disappointment of the Portuguese people - "but they are not more disappointed than us."
PORTUGAL coach Fernando Santos will lead the Seleção into the World Cup play-offs, despite a chors of criticism and calls for his resignation in the wake of their dramatic loss at home to Serbia on Sunday.
The defeat consigned Santos' squad to the play-offs, picking up only one point from a possible six in the crucial pair of group games in Dublin and at home to the Serbians.
Portugal Football Federation officials say that there are no plans to change jockey between now and March's play offs. Portugal entered the final round level on points with Serbia after seven matches but had the advantage of being able to qualify with a draw because of a better goal difference.
“I’m sad and frustrated but I still have confidence in myself and in my players,” Santos said. “The last results were negative but there is no reason we shouldn’t have faith in ourselves.”
“Miserable” and “World shame” were some of the headlines in Portuguese newspaper on Monday. On Tuesday , the daily sports paper, reported that head coach Santos' job is safe for now and he'll still be in charge of Portugal for the playoffs.
He admitted: “We have to apologise. The Portuguese people are disappointed, but they are not more disappointed than us. But my team will be at the World Cup in Qatar, that is a guarantee, only we’ll have to do it through a playoff.
"We played no better than on Thursday in Ireland. We started well; we scored a goal. Then we started to not have the ball, drop deep and arrive late to the ball. We found it hard to get our marking right. I tried, the players tried, they fought hard. The message wasn’t to play like that. If the idea was to draw, we wouldn’t have played like this, in a 4-3-3.
“Some players didn’t understand the message in the first half. I explained at the break. I wanted our full-backs to push up, to play further up the pitch, and the game was more balanced, we had fewer difficulties. We created two or three goal-scoring chances, they did too. We had the clear opportunity with Renato. At a certain point he had to come off, I brought on Bruno to continue to give mobility to the team.
Insisting that Man City's Bernardo Silva had "asked" to be taken off, Santos added: "He was the only player who was getting hold of the ball. I’d have had to be a bit of a fool to take him off because he was the only player who had the ball at his feet and was turning the game in our favour. We always played with fear and anxiety, passing from side to side, back to the goalkeeper. The responsibility is mine.
Bernardo Silva accepted that Portugal were architect of their own problems: "It was an awful performance; I can’t explain it. Playing at home in front of 65,000 people we have to do better. The plan was to try and have the ball, which didn’t happen and at no period of the match were we better than Serbia. This is inadmissible and we have to improve in March.”
Cristiano Ronaldo wants his colleagues to rebound quickly after the stunning qualifier loss.
“Football has shown us time and time again that sometimes the most difficult paths are the ones that lead us to the most desired outcomes,” Ronaldo said on Instagram.
The 36-year-old veteran could be facing his last World Cup after making four straight appearances in the tournament since 2006.
“Sunday's result was tough, but not tough enough to get us down,” he said. “The goal of being in the 2022 World Cup is still very much alive and we know what we have to do to get there.
“No excuses,” he said. “Portugal on its way to Qatar.”
Portugal looked good at the start of the game against Serbia at the Stadium of Light in Lisbon, scoring after two minutes with Renato Sanches. But it struggled afterward, allowing the visitors to equalize through Dusan Tadic in the 33rd and seeing substitute Aleksandar Mitrovic score the winner in the end.
Ronaldo was upset after the late goal, complaining and yelling at his teammates from midfield as he waited for play to resume. After the final whistle, he sat on the field by himself, shaking his head and looking desolate. Some teammates and opponents came over to console him.
Veteran goalkeeper Rui Patrício was being blamed for a blunder on the first goal, when he couldn’t hold on to the ball after Tadic’s shot deflected off a Portugal defender.
Portugal will have to face the playoffs with the other nine group runners-up and two group winners from the UEFA Nations League. The 12 countries will play next March in three four-team brackets, with the seeded teams getting a home game in the bracket semi-finals.
They've appeared at every World Cup since 2002 after failing to make it to the tournament from 1990-1998. It was eliminated by Uruguay in the round of 16 of the World Cup in Russia in 2018.
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