Euro 2012 Qualifiers – Portugal draw vs. Cyprus in a 4-4 Goal-Fest
Portugal were scheduled to take on Cyprus in both the teams’ opening game to the qualifying campaign to the Euro 2012 group stages. Portugal were considered to be the favourites going into the game; however, there was still some bad news in store for the team and its fans.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who is the captain of the side and quite possibly the best player to ever play for the team, picked up an ankle injury last weekend while playing for Real Madrid and was not able to make the trip to play in the match.
Paulo Ferreira had also announced his retirement from international football so that he could focus on club level football, and was hence not going to be available for the match tonight.
Along with that, the Portugal camp was in the midst of a doping scandal that needed to be sorted out; that would have been on the back of the players’ minds and hence affected their performances in the match.
Cyprus, however, had the advantage of being the underdogs; not much was known about the team and hence the Portuguese could not prepare for their match like they would have wanted to, simply because they didn't know just what their opponents would be bringing to the table.
The match got underway with Cyprus looking the more threatening initially to everyone’s surprise. It was this early pressure that eventually led to the team’s first goal: in the third minute, Efstathios Aloneftis caught the Portuguese back-line napping and scored the opener of the game.
However, the Portugal team managed to respond almost immediately, as five minutes later, Hugo Almeida had the score level at one goal apiece.
The game already started to look like a goal-fest in the making. With Michalis Konstantinou scoring Cyprus's second goal on the eleventh minute, the fans knew that they were in to watch one of the best matches that they would ever see, because neither team looked like they were going to take the beating from the other lying down.
The game managed to calm down a bit after that goal till Raul Meireles scored Portugal’s second goal right before the half-hour mark. The game was level once again.
It managed to stay level all the way to the half-time break and a more than entertaining half finally came to a close. The fans were, however, hoping that the second half would kick off almost immediately considering the brilliant football that was on display.
Five minutes into the second half, Danny got on the score-sheet for the Portuguese, and Portugal took the lead for the very first time in the game.
However, Cyprus had plans of their own, as seven minutes later, Yiannis Okkas scored Cyprus's third goal to level the score-line once again. That was the third time the scores were levelled on the night.
On the sixtieth minute, Manuel Fernandes scored Portugal's fourth goal. It was a goal that most believed would see the team go all the way to pick up the three points. However, in the last minute of the game, Andreas Avraam snuck a goal out of nowhere; the Cyprus player stunned the home crowd as he levelled the score for the fourth time on the night.
The match finally ended but the fans got their money’s worth on the night. Both teams also had to share points once the match concluded, and neither of them should or would be disappointed with the outcome of the game.
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