11 min I’m not sure Ronaldo has touched the ball yet.
10 min Eden Hazard plays a nice one-two with Lukaku on the edge of the area, and then slices his shot miles wide.
9 min That Jota chance aside, it’s been a pretty cagey start. Belgium continue to dominate possession, but Portugal won’t mind that.
6 min: Good chance for Jota! Out of nothing, Portugal almost grabbed the lead. Sanches turned Tielemans smoothly on the halfway line, surged at a retreating defence and slid the ball to his left to find Jota just inside the area. He took a touch but then, with Alderweireld sliding across him, dragged a shot well wide of the far post.
5 min “Ronaldo is also tied with Marta on 109 international goals,” writes John Neville, “with about eight women ahead of them. He has some distance to go to move past Christine Sinclair on 186.”
But what a moment it will be when he scored goal No187 against Spain on his 63rd birthday.
4 min Nothing to report so far. Belgium have had most of the ball in the early minutes.
Nelly Korda is the best player in the world yet to win a major. She’s leading, having nearly holed out from 250 yards for an albatross on the par-five 5th. She’s outstanding, and so is second-placed Lizette Salas, who is a much shorter hitter but has supernatural scrambling skills and simply refuses to yield. It’s shaping up to be a great battle. Go on, open another window, spoil yourself with sport.
2 min “Evening Rob,” says Simon McMahon. “I hope the football is better than the kits, which are both shockingly bad.”
1 min Peep peep! Belgium, in red, kick off from left to right. Portugal are in their teal change strip.
Some games are bigger than others. And for a last-16 tie, this is humongous.
“Evening Rob,” says Stephen Carr. “Far be it for me to infer that my optimism is fuelled almost entirely by what feels like an endless supply of ice cold bottles of Mahou (other chilled Spanish lagers are available) but I do feel that tonight’s match could be a right old thumper. I’m thinking France v Argentina at World Cup 2018. Alternatively, supplies could run out, its 1-0 Belgium and I’m in bed by 9.45.”
The players stroll onto the field. It’s a gorgeous evening in Seville, with temperatures around 30 degrees. It’s 9pm on a Sunday!
“Hang on!” shouts Charles Antaki. “Thomas Vermaelen in the back three - is that the same Thomas Vermaelen, 87, (actually 35, but hey), was pretty good when he played for Arsenal, pretty poor when he played (when not injured) for FC Barcelona, and who-knows-how-good when playing nine games in the J-League this year? I know that Ronaldo isn’t quite as fast as he used to be, but the green lights must already be flashing in his eyes.”
The Belgium back three have a combined age of 101, which is coincidentally the age at which Cristiano Ronaldo plans to start winding down at the highest level.
The reward for tonight’s winners is a mouthwatering quarter-final against Italy in Munich on Friday night. The winners of that game will play France, Switzerland, Spain or Croatia in the semis.
Two players are on a yellow card and will miss the quarter-final if they are booked tonight: Thorgan Hazard for Belgium, Ruben Dias for Portugal.
In other news, congratulations to England on the Czech Republic’s surprise victory in Budapest
Pre-match reading
Joao Palhinha and Manchester United’s Diogo Dalot make their full internatonal debuts for Portugal, having been picked ahead of Danilo and Nelson Semedo. The out-of-form Bruno Fernandes is again omitted.
Belgium’s team is pretty much as expected; Thomas Vermaelen has been chosen as the third centre-back.
Belgium (3-4-2-1) Courtois; Alderweireld, Vermaelen, Vertonghen; Meunier, Tielemans, Witsel, T Hazard; De Bruyne, E Hazard; Lukaku.
Substitutes: Mignolet, Sels, Boyata, Carrasco, Mertens, Denayer, Dendoncker, Benteke, Batshuayi, Trossard, Doku, Praet.
Portugal (4-1-4-1) Rui Patricio; Dalot, Pepe, Ruben Dias, Guerreiro; Joao Palhinha; Bernardo Silva, Joao Moutinho, Renato Sanches, Diogo Jota; Ronaldo.
Substitutes: Lopes, Rui Silva, Nelson Semedo, Fonte, Andre Silva, Bruno Fernandes, Danilo, Ruben Neves, Pedro Goncalves, Joao Felix, Sergio Oliveira, Nuno Mendes.
Referee Felix Brych (Germany).
In a few hours’ time, either Belgium or Portugal will be out of Euro 2020. Gone. Next plane home. Forget it, it’s over. It feels too early for such a titanic clash, but that’s the delicious jeopardy you get at major tournaments – especially when some of the third-placed teams qualify. Exhibit A: 24 June 1990. Like Brazil that day, Belgium could become collateral damage from the group of death.
With a respectful nod to Croatia v Spain, this is the tie of the round – the team ranked no1 in the world against the reigning champions (and the world no5). Both teams are deluxe motley crews, if that isn’t an oxymoron; a slightly odd mixture of galacticos, geriatricos and Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielders.
There’s a huge amount of experience on both sides, and both starting XIs should share around 750 caps. The downside is that Belgium are running out of time to win a trophy before their golden generation turns to base metal. But Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku look of a mind to address this particular issue, and they breezed through the group stage.
Things were a lot hairier for Portugal, and at one stage on Wednesday night they were going out. Cristiano Ronaldo’s fifth goal of the tournament calmed their nerves, and tonight he has the opportunity to add another string to his GOAT credentials by becoming the leading scorer in international football history. Ronaldo is on 109, level with Fifa 98 legend Ali Daei of Iran. One hundred and nine goals. That’s more than the entire Portugal team scored throughout the 1980s.
Kick off 8pm BST, 9pm in Seville.
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