Portugal fought well against the early favourites, but Holland was stronger in the end with 3–2 goals. In group C, the tension stretched to the final round.
In the European football championships, Holland beat Portugal 3–2. In group C, Sweden and the Netherlands are tied with four points, Portugal and Switzerland are on one point.
When considering who from the group will advance to the playoffs, there are still many options. In the next matches of Group B, Sweden will face Portugal and Switzerland will challenge the Netherlands. It is possible that after the final round, everyone will be tied.
If the number of goals didn’t decide who goes on, disciplinary points (yellow and red cards) would have to be reviewed. Sports expert Timo Furuholm however, I don’t think this will be necessary.
– Although Switzerland and Portugal challenged the early favorites on Wednesday, both ran out of gas. In the third game, it can be quite a decisive factor if neither can run anymore, Furuholm said.
Marianne Miettinen agreed with the thoughts of his expert partner. According to him, the teams with the largest number of players are strong in terms of the next place.
– In this group, Sweden has so far suffered the least from missing players. The head coach Peter Gerhardson made some good changes on wednesday where he was able to rest his key players. Sweden has quite a lot of buns in the oven for the last round.
In Wednesday’s evening match, Holland’s goals were the finishing touch Damaris Egurrola, Stefanie van der Gragt and Danielle van de Donk. They were responsible for Portugal’s goals Carole Costa and Diana Silva. In the match, people were surprised when it took a total of about seven minutes for the VAR video checks in the match.
In the first half, Holland dominated and led the match with two goals after about fifteen minutes had been played.
– This time the goals are from special situations, but Holland looks like a pretty balanced unit both in attack and defense, expert Miettinen said during the break of the match.
In the 33rd minute of the match Dominique Janssen brought down Portugal’s Diana Silva in the Dutch penalty area.
The situation was reviewed for about three minutes on video until the referee Ivana Martinčić gave Portugal a penalty kick from which Carole Costa put the ball into the goal.
– After the goal, Portugal’s game improved. They perked up and started to look even stronger. Still, they need to get a common understanding for defense, expert Furuholm said.
See the situation of Portugal’s spot in the video below.
An invigorated Portugal drew level right at the beginning of the second period. From the aftermath of the corner kick, Portugal got a cross into the mouth of the goal, where Diana Silva headed the ball into the goal and the scores were 2–2.
Just a moment later, Holland Jill Roord put the ball in the goal. By Lineth Beerenstey was however offside in the situation.
The offside, which seemed clear, was watched in the video referees’ booth for about four minutes. In the end, the situation was determined to be offside and the goal was disallowed.
See the Netherlands’ offside situation in the video below.
With half an hour left in the game, the Dutch Danielle van de Donk brought his team a 3–2 victory with a great long shot.
Holland have never lost in official matches when van de Donk has scored. He has scored 33 goals in 26 matches. Holland has won 23 of these matches and played three draws.
Portugal attacked when 90+5 were played. The ball went over the goal line from the Dutch player’s head. Portugal waited for a corner kick, but then the final whistle blew. The Portuguese players rushed to ask the referee why the match ended as it did.
The referee Martinčić did not listen to the protests, but gave the goalkeeper For Inês Pereira a yellow card.