Portugal Beats Azerbaijan With Three Goals, Fernando Santos: We Should Have Won 4-0 Or 5-0

Portugal coach Fernando Santos (Twitter @selecaoportugal)

JAKARTA - Portugal national team coach Fernando Santos believes his team should have won more heavily over Azerbaijan after beating the hosts 3-0 in the 2022 World Cup qualifying round for the European zone in Baku, Tuesday local time.

"We know it will be a game that tests our patience, against a team that can defend well", Santos said after the match.

"If we can score goals sooner, we can force them to change. That only happened after the 2-0 position", he added.

🕴 𝘔𝘪𝘴𝘴ã𝘰 𝘊𝘶𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘢 𝘦𝘮 𝘉𝘢𝘬𝘶. Vemo-nos em Outubro! 👋🇵🇹 #VamosComTudo #TeamPortugal #WCQ pic.twitter.com/pAZJ5rD0Ra

— Portugal (@selecaoportugal) September 7, 2021

Bernardo Silva opened Portugal's lead in the 26th minute which was quickly doubled by Andre Silva five minutes later.

The 2-0 score lasted until halftime and Portugal, who appeared so dominant, completed the 3-0 victory through Diogo Jota's goal in the 75th minute.

"We played well, with balance for most of the game, always chasing goals from both the middle and the flanks", he said.

"This is a minimal result from what we showed throughout the game. The logical result should be 4-0 or 5-0", closed Santos.

UEFA's official website statistics noted that in addition to dominating 67 percent of possession throughout the match, Portugal also released no less than 22 attempted shots, seven of which met the target.

The result temporarily made Portugal take over the top position in Group A of the 2022 World Cup qualifying European zone with 13 points after, in another match, Serbia (11) was held to a draw by the Republic of Ireland.

Next month, Portugal will only play one match in the 2022 World Cup qualifying window, which is to host Luxembourg at the Algarve Stadium, Almancil, on October 12.