Dortmund [Germany], June 23 (ANI): Portugal head coach Roberto Martinez showed some serious concerns regarding pitch invasions in football matches and said that it should not happen.
During Portugal’s 3-0 win over Turkiye in their previous match of the Group F match of the EURO 2024, the game was halted for several times after fans came on the pitch to take selfies with the legendary footballer and Portugal skipper Cristiano Ronaldo.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner failed to score a goal in the match but played a crucial role in the last goal of the match. He kept four shots and created three chances in the game. Ronaldo kept 76% accurate passes against Turkiye in the EURO 2024 group stage match.
Speaking after the match, Martinez said that the fans should stop invading football pitches since they will not get anything from it.
“I don’t think it should happen on a football pitch. There is a lot of security and a lot of protection and I don’t think that should happen and we should probably give a message to the fans that it is not the right way. You are not going to get anything out of it and probably the measures get worse for the future and it’s not good to get the players so exposed when you’re running on the pitch,” Martinez was quoted by Goal.com as saying.
The Portugal head coach further opened up on the issue and said that it is an issue. He pointed out that they were lucky on Saturday that the fans’ intentions were good.
“It is a concern because today we were lucky that the intentions of the fans were good. We all love fans who recognise the big stars and the big icons in their lives. You can understand there is a very difficult moment if those intentions are wrong the players are exposed and we need to be careful,” he added.
Ronaldo’s side dominated the game from the very first minute and did not give any chance to their opponent to come closer to scoring a goal. Silva made the first breakthrough of the match after he got the back of the in the 21st minute. Samet Akaydin made a blunder in the 28th minute after he scored an own goal and gave Portugal a 2-0 lead. In the second half, Ronaldo was more active and made a clinical pass to Fernandes from which the 29-year-old scored a goal. After the final whistle, Portugal clinched a 3-0 win over Turkiye and bagged crucial three points.
In their upcoming Group F match, Portugal will take on Georgia in Gelsenkirchen on Thursday. After beating Czechia and Turkiye, Portugal will be looking forward to ending their group stage with an unbeaten streak. (ANI)
