Portugal and Bosnia will cross swords again, in the second leg of their play off for Euro 2012 qualification, on Tuesday, November 15, 2011, after the first leg on Friday ended in a goalless stalemate.
The first leg hosted by Bosnia was a brilliant result for the hosts who managed to keep the Portugal forwards at bay on a day their three regular defenders were missing on account of injury woes. Incidentally, the hosts on Friday were on an unbeaten run of seven matches, in which they had maintained six clean slates.
Overall, it was a lacklustre game with few scoring chances created. That said, Portugal had the better share of them and Cristiano Ronaldo in particular was guilty of squandering several. Raul Meireles and Helder Postiga had the earliest opportunities to put Portugal ahead on nine and 19 minutes.
In the 16th minute, Ronaldo broke through the Bosnia back-line but hung on to the ball when his team's cause would have been better served with a pass, and when he did shoot, it was too weak to trouble Bosnai keeper Begovic. On the half-hour, Bosnia's Adnan Zahirovic failed to take advantage of Portugal keeper Rui Patricio's fumbling, following a cross into the visitors' box.
On 50 minutes, Ronaldo found himself through on the left flank, and unmarked, with only Begovic to beat, the Real Madrid star shot wide.
For some strange reason, Portugal departed from their trademark short passing game and relied instead on long passes downfield. In attack, Bosnia were over-reliant on Dzeko who was brilliant marked by Pepe in the Portugal back-line. the home team had just one goalward bound shot before the interval, when Senad Lucic let fly, on 35 minutes.
Portugal dominated the first half and after the interval, Bosnia gave a good account of themselves, and Dzeko had a clear opportunity to help his side to full points from the game. Dzeko let fly from 30 metres out, on 72 minutes, and two minutes later, Postiga had another miss, this time from short range, and this was followed by another wasted break by Ronaldo.
Bosnia would count themselves fortunate for having come out unscathed from the Friday game, and all the pressure would be on Portugal playing before their home fans. Papac, Pandza and Mujdza who missed the first leg are likely to start for Bosnia, who would be hoping to pull off an upset and their first qualification for a major international tournament.
Bosnia's starting eleven: Begovic, Spahic, Jahic, Rahimic, Pjanic, Misimovic, Salihovic, Lulic, Medunjanin, Zahirovic, Dzeko
Portugal's starting eleven: Patricio, Alves, Pereira, Pepe, Coentrao, Veloso, Moutinho, Meireles, Nani, Ronaldo, Postiga
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Suresh Iyer is an avid sports fan and blogger.
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