Wednesday night saw Portugal lose their 100% record in Euro 2024 in a shock 2-0 defeat to Georgia, now Diogo Dalot has shared his view.
Portugal may have already topped their group in Germany but by no means does that mean they’ll have been happy with the loss to a side which is on paper so far inferior to theirs.
Portugal heavily rotated, leaving out Bruno Fernandes which once again reaffirmed that he is Portugal’s star player now, not Cristiano Ronaldo.
Without Fernandes, Roberto Martinez’s side is timid, toothless and slow, because of this, Georgia had no problem whatsoever dealing with the Portuguese attack.
Now, after the defeat, Diogo Dalot has shared his view on the game and what he thought the problem was.
Diogo Dalot breaks silence after Portugal lose to Georgia
The loss left the Portugal fans in the stadium dumbfounded and silent, now though Dalot has shared his verdict on the game.
Speaking to the Portuguese outlet, ABola, the Manchester United defender was quizzed over the display in which he touched on how bitter the defeat was because Portugal didn’t play as they knew they could.
“I think it was precisely [that we] stopped doing what we worked on, to stop practising our concepts, what we had prepared for the game, I think the goal destabilized a little what was precisely this calm of doing exactly what we prepared.
“Very hasty, always trying to reach the last fast third, without big decisions, and again at the beginning of the second half ends up shaking the team again. In general, we didn’t do what we worked on and it tastes bitter precisely because of that.
“We knew that’s exactly what they were going to do, they are a team that being back there are comfortable, looking for the transition. We knew that if we didn’t have a defensive balance well done we would suffer counterattacks, and the team would run meters unnecessarily.
“The first goal turned out to be like this, then we suffered in some moves that we could have avoided and then in the last third we had to be much calmer, calmer to decide, more passes, tire them a little more with the ball and decide better. We didn’t end up doing it, but we want to learn from it and take it to the next game now.
“No, I don’t think so [that confidence has been lost], we are calm, we knew that this game was important to win, we really wanted to win. An opportunity also for many players to show that they are here, regardless of everything we continue to work, we train well, we work well and now we have a difficult game to prepare.”
Speaking like this after a tough defeat shows Dalot’s mentality and makes it even more clear why he is considered a future captain for United.).
How Diogo Dalot fared in the game
Dalot started the game as a right-back but soon became a right-sided centre-back with United target Antonio Silva being hooked off.
All in all, Dalot can be happy with his individual performance, completing 98 per cent of his 55 passes (54) which included 15 into the final third, creating one chance.
He won one tackle from one attempt, made six defensive actions, five recoveries and a block, clearance and interception.
Dalot also won four of his seven duels, keeping a good level of control on Khvicha Kvaratskhelia once he moved into the more defensive role.
All in all, Dalot did well in the game and despite the defeat, he didn’t really have a fault worth mentioning.