The Group A game saw the Portuguese team, which was not captained by Cristiano Ronaldo due to his suspension, cruising to victory with a 0-3 win.

Bernardo Silva got the team up and running with the first goal in the 26th minute of the game with this then followed by goals by André Silva, in the 31st minute, and Diogo Jota, in the 75th minute.

Following the game, coach Fernando Santos said: “When you're not organised, you don't have confidence. I thought, and I still think, that in the game against Ireland I chose well, but we didn't get the balance we should have.

“We knew that this would be a game of patience, against a team that defends well, and that if we scored a goal early, we would force the opponent to change.

“We had a good performance, with a lot of balance at all times, always looking for the goal, both in depth and in width. The only thing that isn't right is the amount of goals we scored, it was scarce, for what we produced”.

For Santos, he believed that the final score should have been 0-4 or even 0-5 based on the quality of play produced by Portugal.

Goal scorer André Silva said: “It went well for the whole team and for me too. Scoring is always good. It was a job for the whole team, we were doing well from the first minute until the end.

“Opponents are tough and all games are final for us.”

Regarding his selection for the starting eleven, he said: “There is no guaranteed place in the starting team. We all do our best and try to demonstrate what we can bring to the national team. I always give my best and I always try to justify it, like all my colleagues.

Diogo Jota told reporters: “The result helped, especially in the second half. Everyone was loose, looking for spaces with the ball. We made the game very difficult for Azerbaijan and got a good result.”

Manchester United star Bruno Fernandes added: “The important thing was to win the three points. We know that if we win every game until the end, we're through.”

When asked about Cristiano Ronaldo coming to join him in Manchester he said: “He's another player, and we know the excitement will be running high. Everyone knows Cristiano in that stadium. We feel the confidence and we know what it can give us. Our focus, like Cristiano's, is to win everything there is to win”.

Author

Originally from the UK, Daisy has been living and working in Portugal for more than 20 years. She has worked in PR, marketing and journalism, and has been the editor of The Portugal News since 2019. Jornalista 7920

Daisy Sampson