Bulgaria U21 inflicted Portugal's first defeat in the 2027 European Championship qualifiers, after turning the match from 0:1 to 2:1 at the “Giorgi Benkovski“ stadium in Pazardzhik. The Portuguese team led until the 87th minute, but conceded two goals late on and missed the opportunity to guarantee direct qualification and first place in Group B.
Gustavo Varela opened the scoring early in the second half after an assist from Rodrigo Mora. Bulgaria equalized in the 87th minute, and Aleksandar Marinov scored the winning goal in the first minute of added time. There is a discrepancy in the descriptions about the exact author of the first Bulgarian goal: Bulgarian data attributes it to Todor Pavlov, while Portuguese media point to Damyan Yordanov.
Reactions in Portugal focused on the missed opportunities and the collapse in the final minutes. A Bola defined what happened as an “incredible turnaround“ and emphasized that Portugal conceded two goals within four minutes. According to the publication, Luis Freire's team had control of the match, but failed to double their lead.
Observer emphasized the waste in front of the goal with a headline that can be translated as “They could have defeated, in the end they lost through their own fault“. The media outlet notes that Rodrigo Mora, Geovanni Cuenda and Gustavo Varela created several chances, and the Portuguese also hit the crossbar twice before the break.
Luis Freire: This should be a lesson
“In the first half we completely dominated. We had many chances and deserved to lead. After the goal we had two, three and four opportunities to score again. We could have scored three, four or five goals“, Luis Freire told Portuguese television channel Canal 11, quoted by LUSA.
The coach described the loss as a “bitter feeling“ and pointed to two main weaknesses: insufficient efficiency in front of the opponent's goal and the lack of compactness in defense after taking the lead. “This should serve as a lesson for the future”, said Freire.
For Portugal, the defeat ended their unbeaten run and their clean sheet in qualifying. The team remained top of the group with 19 points, ahead of the Czech Republic with 15 and Bulgaria with 14. The Portuguese will host Gibraltar on September 30 and play the Czech Republic in their final group game on October 6.
The international coverage remained mostly informative, but the emphasis was the same everywhere: Portugal were close to qualifying, taking the lead in Pazardzhik, but suffered a late comeback that put the decision on hold for the final two games.
Sources: A Bola, Observer, LUSA