Portugal Boss Santos Brands Defeat to Belgium ‘Unfair’ After Crashing Out of Euro 2020

• Thorgan Hazard's 42ng minute strike was all Belgium needed to dump Portugal out of Euro 2020 at the last 16 stage
• The defending champions made efforts to get back into the game before the final whistle sounded but they unlucky
• Fernando Santos has now jumped in the defence of his players especially Ronaldo while attending to media questions

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Portugal's quest to win their second consecutive European Championship title came to an abrupt end over the weekend after losing 1-0 to Belgium in their last-16 game.

Thorgan Hazard's lone strike three minutes before halftime propelled the Red Devils to their fourth straight triumphs in this year's edition of the competition.

Fernando Santos' men made serious attempts to find at least an equaliser all through the second half of the meeting but their best effort was denied by the woodworks.

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The defeat however subjected the defending champions to tears with the Portuguese manager branding the result 'unfair' while addressing the media after the match.

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Fernando Santos breaks silence on Euro 2020 ouster

Santos also jumped into Cristiano Ronaldo's defence despite firing blanks all through the encounter in Sevilla on Sunday, June 27. He was quoted by the Mirror saying:

"Ronaldo scored five goals in the tournament. He didn’t score today but he was a true captain in every sense of the word. He tried to turn the game around. There’s no issue with Ronaldo."

Thorgan Hazard's goal came from Belgium only shot on target and Santos believes that wasn't fair on his team after 29 shots and not even one would find the back of the net before the final whistle.

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Portugal boss Fernando Santos' verdict on defeat to Belgium

"I think it is unfair but this is football. If you score you win - they scored, we didn’t.

"But apart from the first 10 minutes when we didn’t play that well, my players played with a strong mentality and tried to attack.

"We wanted the ball. We had 29 shots and couldn’t score one. They had six shots and one on target and they won. We hit the post and carried on being dangerous but the ball wouldn’t go in.

Belgium beat Portugal to reach Euro 2020 quarterfinals

Legit.ng earlier reported that Portugal have been dumped out of Euro 2020 in the Round of 16 after suffering a 1-0 defeat in the hands of Belgium in a thrilling clash staged in Sevilla.

Despite being pooled in one of the toughest groups, Portugal managed to book a place in the Knockout round after securing a vital point against favourites France in their final group match.

However, their epic journey in the continental showpiece has been brought to a halt, with Thorgan Hazard's first-half wondrous strike booking the Red Devils a place in the quarter-finals.