The winning team
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
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The UEFA Select Squad picked by the technical observers in Finland has players from six countries, with big Italian and Portuguese representations in particular.
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The UEFA Technical Observers narrowed down a long list of candidates to a team sheet of 20 players, divided into a starting line-up and a nine-man bench. There were, evidently, some near misses – among them Portugal goalkeeper Diogo Costa or midfielder Miguel Luís and France left-back Nicolas Cozza, whose campaigns were curtailed by injuries. Or Ukraine goalkeeper Vladyslav Kucheruk, who had exuded confidence and security before conceding five in that disastrous half-hour against Portugal – a disappointing performance which also led to both wing-backs and wide midfielder Heorhi Tsitaishvili being erased from the list.
Portugal was well represented in the squad which featured Ruben Vinagre, Florentino, Quina and João Filipe ‘Jota’ who had also been in the UEFA Select Squad when, also under Hélio Sousa, Portugal lifted the UEFA U17 trophy in Azerbaijan in 2016 – along with Diogo Costa and striker José Gomes.
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