After the group stage of the European Championship, the teams that have advanced to the knockout stage have entered the preparation rhythm of the quarter-finals, including Portugal, one of the favorites. In the last round, Portugal lost 0-2 to Georgia, and the 12-game winning streak in the official game came to an end, and this defeat will also affect the team's morale and is not conducive to the 1/8 finals.
According to the situation of the knockout stage, Portugal's 1/8 final opponent is Slovenia, which finally advanced to the knockout stage for the first time in the main match of the European Championship for the second time. It is worth mentioning that Slovenia is also the first team in the history of the European Championship to qualify without a win in the first six games.
In 2000, Slovenia participated in the European Championship for the first time, and was eliminated in the group stage with 2 draws and 1 loss, and now it has participated in the group stage again after 24 years, and has achieved 3 consecutive draws and scored 2 goals.
It is worth mentioning that the last time the European Cup was in the group stage 3 consecutive draws ranked third out of the team, or Portugal in 2016, and now the two teams meet in the 1/8 finals, which is also a very coincidence, and will start at 3 o'clock in the morning on July 2, Beijing time, CCTV5 live broadcast.
In the latest world rankings, Slovenia ranks 57th, and the whole team is worth only 150 million euros, which is far inferior to Portugal, which is ranked 6th in the world and the whole team is worth more than 1 billion euros.
However, the only time the two teams have met in the past, Slovenia have beaten Portugal 2-0, in a friendly in March this year, when Chelin broke the deadlock 1-0 and then Elsnik sealed a 2-0 victory, handing Portugal's new coach Martinez his first defeat since taking charge.
In addition, Slovenia's strength is stronger than that of the Czech Republic, Portugal only reversed the Czech Republic 2-1 in the group stage, and Slovenia faced England, which is worth as much as 1.52 billion euros, to complete a 0-0 draw, the performance is too incredible, so Portugal's 1/8 finals will definitely not be so easy to face such a dark horse team.
After a three-month hiatus, the two sides met again, this time in the knockout stages of the European Championship, giving the Slovenian players the confidence to beat Portugal again and continue to break the team's record for the best record in the European Championship. Since Portugal's attack is not weak, it should be able to break through the Slovenian goal, so if Slovenia want to eliminate the opponent, they must score one more goal than their opponent, such as 2-1 or 3-2 and so on.