This game was not quite what the 28,000 people in the stadium were after. Until the last 10 minutes the game was fairly poor.
The first half ended with perhaps one on target effort from England and 2 (other than the goal) from Portugal, the match was in the midfield and it began to get boring. The 39th minute was when the goal came, a free-kick from Candido Costa for Tonel to powerfully head into the bottom right hand corner.
It was brighter in the second half but the game was never really exiting until the last 10 minutes with Zamora, Defoe and a right winger, number 17, that remains unknown for the time being!
Portugal missed a one on one with the keeper in the 71st minute, Filipe Texeira taking the ball well in front of the defence, a chip over the keeper going wide.
Aston Villa's Peter Crouch came very close with a header in the 76th minute and had another decent header in injury time. Defoe had a very good opportunity near the end but fired just over and had other chances which were put just wide.
This was the England U21's first loss under David Platt.
The first half ended with perhaps one on target effort from England and 2 (other than the goal) from Portugal, the match was in the midfield and it began to get boring. The 39th minute was when the goal came, a free-kick from Candido Costa for Tonel to powerfully head into the bottom right hand corner.
It was brighter in the second half but the game was never really exiting until the last 10 minutes with Zamora, Defoe and a right winger, number 17, that remains unknown for the time being!
Portugal missed a one on one with the keeper in the 71st minute, Filipe Texeira taking the ball well in front of the defence, a chip over the keeper going wide.
Aston Villa's Peter Crouch came very close with a header in the 76th minute and had another decent header in injury time. Defoe had a very good opportunity near the end but fired just over and had other chances which were put just wide.
This was the England U21's first loss under David Platt.