Ronaldo and co started their European Championship campaign against Iceland on Tuesday night. After dominanting display in first half where they took the lead through Nani’s close range finish they found themselves at the receiving end when Birkir Bjarnason equalized for Iceland just after the break in what was a very competitive game. Hungary had won their game earlier in the day getting on top of the group D.
Nani scored in just 31st minute of the match after he was played through a superb ball and he poked home from close range to make it 1-0 for Portugal. However after the break Iceland found themselves back on level terms through a stunning goal by Birkir Bjarnason.
Portugal 1-1 Iceland Highlights
[UEFA European Championship 2016 ]
31′ 1 – 0 Nani poked home from close range to put dominant Portugal in front against Iceland.
50′ 1 – 1 Birkir Bjarnason brought Iceland back into the game just after the break.
Preview: Portugal and Iceland are the last two teams will will play their first game of the tournament on Tuesday night and looking at all the earlier games we can pretty much predict yet another closely fought game and it would not surprise me if 1 goal wins it for either side. This tournament has been so tight than only Germany has recorded a win with more than 1 goal. Having said that Iceland has the worst defensive record if we consider the last 6 games where they have conceded as many as 17 goals more than anyone else in the tournament.
Team News & lineups: Portugal are coming into the competition on the back of a massive 7-0 drubbing of Estonia where Ronaldo scored a hattrick while Ricardo Quaresma (who might miss the game due to muscle problems) assisted three. But playing in European championship opening game always has it own pressure and it is highly likely manager will be going with experienced Nani in starting lineup upfront alongside Ronaldo if Quaresma fail to recover in time.
This is how I expect both teams to lineup on Tuesday.
Match Predictions: Only time these two have meet in competitive game previously was back in 2012 Euro qualifying where Portugal came out winners on both occassions. Iceland has overachieved having qualified for the major tournament but I expect them to get exposed against a very under rated Portugal side who has alot more to them apart from Ronaldo. I am going with first riot of the tournament with Portugal to win 3-0.