Equilibrium between Portugal and Ireland in a brief history of official wars

A Wednesday’s match at the Estadio Algarve, Mundial’s Group A qualifier for 2022, is the 14th match between the two teams, with a record of four Portuguese wins, four Irish and still two draws.

However, there are only four official duels, and in this particular case, there will not be a great balance, as Portugal won one, the Republic of Ireland won another, and had two ties, both of which only ran into history until 2002.

At the Estadio de Luz, Sergio Concio’s goal put Antonio Oliveira ahead of the team on the scoreboard, but Matt Holland found the ‘way’ for a draw with a strong kick from outside the territory (1-1).

Later, in Dublin, the result would have been exactly the same, but Irish opened the scoring through Roy Keane and Portugal restored equality through Luis Figo.

Both teams finished first in the group with the same points, stamping their ‘passports’ to South Korea and Japan, different from what happened when Portugal conquered the Irish six years ago and exited the Euro 1996. .

However, seven months before this crucial victory, the national team lost 1-0 in the Irish capital, leading to the clash on 15 November 1995 with a goal from Steve Stunt, but with valuable ‘help’ from Voter Bana. Despite continuous rain in the Portuguese capital, Portugal’s three-point lead over their rivals was crucial.

The ‘void’ lasted a fixed hour, when Rui Costa withdrew a monumental ‘hat’ to goalkeeper Alan Kelly, followed by goals from Holder Cristivo and Jorge Cadet (3-0), completing a comeback from the national team in the final round of a major match, Euro 1984 12 years after participating in Euro 1996.

There are eight private individuals in the history between Portugal and the Republic of Ireland, the last of which was in the United States in 2014, 5-1, in preparation for the 2014 Mundial, a game for the Independence Cup, also known as the ‘Minicop’ in Brazil in 1972.

Portugal and the Republic of Ireland will play in the 2022 Group A qualifier on Wednesday at the Estadio Algarve, Mundial.

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