VIDEO: Coentrao strikes late as Portugal salvage 3-3 draw with Israel
Portugal came back from two goals down to snatch a 3-3 draw in stoppage time against Israel in their World Cup qualifying group F match on Friday
Reuters, Friday 22 Mar 2013
Portugal's player Fabio Coentrao celebrates after scoring against Israel during their 2014 World Cup group F qualifying soccer match at the Ramat Gan stadium near Tel Aviv, Israel (Photo: AP)
The visitors stunned Israel and silenced the 40,000 capacity crowd with a goal in the second minute, but the home side eventually settled and got back on equal terms in the 24th minute through Tomer Hemed.
They then forged a promising lead with goals by Eden Ben Bassat in the 40th minute and Rami Gershon in the 70th.
But a determined effort by Cristiano Ronaldo, who powered into the Israeli area, set up Helder Postiga to reduce the arrears to 3-2 in the 72nd minute and the equaliser was scored by Fabio Coentrao as the visitors laid siege to the Israeli goal.
He stuck his foot out as Israeli defender Yuval Shpungin tried to clear the ball off the line.
Israel and Portugal have eight points from their five matches, four behind unbeaten group leaders Russia, whose game against Northern Ireland in Belfast has been postponed until Saturday due to snow.
"The fact that I am so disappointed after a 3-3 draw with Portugal says everything," said Israeli coach Eli Guttman.
"We saw a cohesive team that is mentally strong and able to overturn a deficit into a promising lead but we lost concentration after we scored the third goal, as if thinking that the situation was too good to be true and we let (Portugal) back into the game," the downcast coach added.
Portugal coach Paulo Bento said he was generally pleased with his players' performance.
"We started well, although we lost our rhythm and conceded two goals... Overall I think we did enough to win the match, we had the majority of goal chances, Israel had three chances and scored three times," he said through an interpreter.
"Having scored a goal in the last minute we could say that we had won a point, but looking at the way we dominated and played, these were two points lost," he added.
Bento thought Portugal's qualifying campaign had been complicated by the draw "but it all depends on us," he said.
The nine group winners in Europe qualify directly for the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil. The eight best runners up will go into to a playoff round with the four victors taking the remaining spots.
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