Turkiye v Portugal: Resilience and belief crucial for Selecao, says Martinez

Roberto Martinez praised Portugal’s resilience in their Euro 2024 opener against Czechia, and believes that will be key to beating a confident Turkiye side.

For both, it was their rising stars who took centre stage during matchday one in Group F, as substitute Francisco Conceicao spared Selecao’s blushes with an injury-time winner against Ivan Hasek’s side.

Earlier that day, it was Real Madrid’s Arda Guler who helped Turkiye beat a tough Georgia display, scoring an exceptional goal to earn his nation their first opening day win at the tournament at the sixth attempt.

Portugal came from a goal behind to ensure their victory, but decisions will be made on who starts up front, with Cristiano Ronaldo failing to score on his landmark European Championship appearance.

The veteran forward has never scored against Turkey, despite playing three matches against them. Only against Albania has he ever played more matches (four) without finding the back of the net for his country.

Martinez’s side won a game from a losing position for the first time under his stewardship and is hopeful his squad can show the same personality against Turkiye in Dortmund.

“Today it’s not about assessing this game from the technical or tactical point of view,” said the head coach.

“We won because we showed resilience, willpower and belief. It’s the first time we’ve come from behind to win [under my tenure]. We believed, we showed incredible personality.

“It’s a game where we had 13 corners; the Czech Republic had none. If we scored early we could have won by three or four goals. The atmosphere was incredible. Our fans did not deserve to lose this game.

“Nuno Mendes in a back three? He has the physical attributes to play in a three-man defence. It’s important to have symmetry in the middle block. The Czech Republic are a physical team. The important thing is not the starting eleven, but how the game ends. We showed we had prepared well.”