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Roberto Martinez's side flaunted their solidarity top to bottom yet come up short on clinical edge without their most famous stars
Portugal rolled out seven improvements from the side that whipped Poland 5-1 at the end of the week yet they seemed as though they would have all that could possibly be needed to discard the Croats right off the bat.
The magnificent Felix gave the guests a merited lead in the 33rd moment when he wonderfully controlled Vitinha's raking pass, prior to rifling the ball through the legs of Dominik Livakovic.
Andrej Kramaric discharged an admonition shot to Portugal when his work cannoned off the post, trailed by the enthusiastic Rafael Leao and Felix going close again for the away side.
Croatia further developed in the last part and thought they had balanced around the hour mark, just for Gvardiol's header to be chalked off as he was offside.
In any case, the Manchester City safeguard got his objective in the 65th moment as he tucked home Kristijan Jakic's prodding cross.
Toward one side, Livakovic splendidly saved Mendes' short proximity shot, and afterward at the other, Jose Sa pulled off a momentous stop to keep out Bet Budimir - who was subsequently denied by the post too.
The objectives for the two countries came from players carrying out their specialty in the Chief Association. Joao Felix (33') and Josko Gvardiol (65') tracked down the rear of the net to see the two groups come to the following phase of the competition. As usual, the game brought up a couple of issues and ideas; the following are five of them:
#5 Vitinha keeps on dazzling for Portugal
While Cristiano Ronaldo's nonappearance will probably be the principal idea, Paris Holy person Germain's Vitinha had one more strong execution for Portugal. The midfielder has made three aids his last two games for his nation and is in fine structure.
Roberto Martinez rolled out discount improvements to his group heading into this game with Croatia. Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Diogo Costa, and Pedro Neto were barred from the group. Be that as it may, The Selecao actually performed splendidly against strong resistance.
Jose Sa, Tomas Araujo, Nelson Semedo, and Otavio gave great records of themselves, while Tiago Djalo came on for an amazing stretch. The Iberian country will be happy with the abundance of ability available to them and ought to be sure of outcome in the years to come.
In a game where the two sides played three focal safeguards, Croatia seemingly had two of the best community retreats from the six on the pitch. Other than Gvardiol, Ajax protector Josip Sutalo was a delight to observe in his nation's safeguard.
The 24-year-old almost got everyone's attention with his late exertion and was strong protectively all through the game. He finished 44 out of 46 passes, won seven out of nine duels, and made three handles. His exhibition would stand out of clubs across Europe.
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