"We defended well," says Iceland's manager after 1-0 defeat to Portugal

Reykjavik [Iceland], June 21 : On Wednesday, in the UEFA EURO Qualifiers match Iceland were defeated 1-0 by Portugal at the Laugardalsvollur stadium in the UEFA EURO Qualifiers match. Following the win, Iceland's manager Age Hareide said, "I think we defended well," as per the official website of UEFA.

Iceland gave a tough fight to Portugal but eventually failed to win the game. Cristiano Ronaldo's late goal helped Portugal secure a win over Iceland.

According to the official website of UEFA, in the post-match interview, Iceland's manager Age Hareide said, I'm happy with the way we defended. I think we defended well. After we went down to 10 men it was difficult. They applied a lot of pressure at the end. I think the players are working well together and we will absolutely be on the right side at the end if we keep working,"

As per the official website of UEFA, Iceland's defender Sverrir Ingason said, "It's really disappointing after all the effort we put into the game. I believe we deserved at least to take one point, but it was difficult especially after we lost a man. We need to learn from this. Teams such as Portugal have a lot of quality and a lot of individual quality. We kept them at bay for most of the game but we switched off for one moment and they scored."

Portugal is the favourite to qualify for the EURO 2024 as they are comfortably sitting on the top of Group J with 12 points.

Portugal has played four matches and won all of them.

In Group J, Portugal is alongside Slovakia, Luxembourg, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Bosnia Herzegovina.

In the match against Iceland, the first half resulted in a draw as both sides failed to find the back of the net in the first 45 minutes.

In the second half, Portugal and Iceland gave their maximum efforts to win the match but struggled to find a goal.

In the 80th minute of the match, Iceland's Willum Thor Willumsson received a red card for his harsh tackle on Portugal's attacker.

It seemed as if the match was heading towards a 0-0 draw but in the 89th of the match, Cristiano Ronaldo scored with a tap-in.

Ronaldo's goal gave Portugal a 1-0 lead and it became difficult for Iceland to make a comeback as their little time left for the match to conclude.

Portugal took 11 shots out of which three were on targets. Their possession on the ball during the game was 72 per cent. Portugal completed a total of 662 passes with an accuracy of 88 per cent.

Iceland took seven shots out of which only one was on target. Their possession on the ball during the match was 28 per cent. They completed a total of 257 passes with an accuracy of 68 per cent.

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