Portugal got off to a winning start at Euro 2024, but one media outlet was left unimpressed by a Manchester City player.
Portugal won 2-1 against Czech Republic, with youngster Francisco Conceicao scoring in injury time to earn his side a big three points.
Portugal had dominated the ball, but didn’t do a great deal with it in the game. Czech Republic took the lead through an excellent striker from Lukas Provod, which forced Portugal to raise their game.
They got back on level terms in lucky fashion though, with goalkeeper Jindrich Stanek parrying the ball against Robin Hranac.
Portugal would eventually take the lead in injury-time, with Conceicao turning the ball in after great work down the left from Pedro Neto.
It was far from a comfortable win for Portugal, and one media outlet wasn’t very impressed with Joao Cancelo.
Joao Cancelo slammed after Portugal’s win over Czech Republic
Cancelo was very interesting to watch positionally last night.
He started as a left wing-back, but was constantly popping in up central midfield with Nuno Mendes – deployed as a left centre-back, holding the width.
In the second-half, Cancelo then moved across to the right side as Martinez shuffled the pack.
Cancelo moving into midfield is something we have seen from him plenty of times at City.
But his performance against Czech Republic didn’t really go down very well with SIC Noticias, a Portuguese outlet. They admitted that they could have rated him higher had Diogo Jota’s goal been onside (Cancelo provided the cross for Cristiano Ronaldo).
But they gave him just 4/10 for his display, and said: “The midfielder, improvised by the coach, already made the cross that could have been the origin of the turnaround as a right back.
“As Jota’s header did not count for the scoreboard, it is objectively a performance by the City star far from what is required of him. And Nelson Semedo is knocking on the door.”
Cancelo did see a lot of the ball last night, and was fairly tidy with it. He completed 66/74 (89%) according to Sofascore. But just one of those was ‘key’, and he didn’t make a single defensive action.
Cancelo may struggle to keep starting berth
So Cancelo did not particularly impress last night, although in fairness it was a collective struggle for Portugal and very few of their players stood out.
Seemingly, the £60 million man is now under a bit of pressure to keep his place in the side, with Nelson Semedo an option for Martinez.
It is not particularly ideal for City, who are keen to get Cancelo off the books this summer.
At the moment, there doesn’t appear to be much interest in the player aside from Barcelona – for whom City have set three conditions if they are to send Cancelo on loan to them again. Euro 2024 acts as a shop window and City officials are probably hoping that Cancelo can shine so that there are more suitors for his signature.