Without Cristiano Ronaldo in his expedition, Portugal left Geneva without the leadership that it had won in the League of Nations tour and that was left the minute it was staged against Switzerland (1-0) that achieved its first victory in the tournament.
The Swiss team languished in the event until the arrival of the Portuguese team. Three defeats in a row had called into question the situation of Switzerland, a regular entertainer in major tournaments come to less.
But the fastest goal in the history of the League of Nations gave him a creditable victory. It was Benfica’s Haris Seferovic who headed into the net, unopposed, a cross from the left by Silvan Widmer. Only 57 seconds had passed since he started the ball rolling in the Geneva stadium.
Portugal crashed where Spain had found the triumph days before. Fernando Santos’s team was not able to recover and carry out a commitment against an initially minor rival that could even achieve a higher prize if they had taken advantage of any of the chances they had due to the defensive imbalances of the visitors.
The situation made Portugal desperate and they hardly had any obvious chances in the first half to balance, at least the score. Fernando Santos had to resort to players to whom he had granted rest. Without Cristiano Ronaldo and without Gonzalo Guedes, Diogo Jota or Bernardo Silva, the advantage given to the rival was greater.
One of the clearest was Pepe, with a header, but he wasn’t right either. Portugal accepted the defeat and left the lead to Spain, which they will receive in September to make amends for the disappointment in Geneva.
