Misimovic blow for Bosnia and Herzegovina
Although they never scored an away goal, Bosnia and Herzegovina had every reason to feel confident about overturning Portugal’s slender lead.
A 1-0 away defeat is not an insurmountable deficit and when you consider the patchy form that Portugal have displayed under Carlos Queiroz, any team at home with a partisan crowd would fancy their chances.
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Unfortunately, the home side have suffered a blow in the build up to the biggest match they have possibly ever played. Influential midfielder Zvjezdan Misimovic has been ruled out of the tie after struggling with an injury during Tuesday’s training session. Bosnia and Herzegovina boss Miroslav Blazevic was quick to confirm that the player will be unavailable for the crunch tie.
There will still be fans clinging to the hope that this is a ruse to hoodwink Portugal but it could also be seen as a way of managing the disappointment of the fans. If the news was kept quiet but Misimovic just missed out, the crowd may have been a bit down heartened. Now that the fans have been warned in advance, they will hopefully be able to realise that their team needs even more support and crank up the volume even more.
Don’t forget, Portugal will be without Cristiano Ronaldo although the Real Madrid star is expected to return to training any day now but this will come too late to assist Portugal.
It is unfortunate when injury robs big players from big games but when so many games are played in a short space of time, it is inevitable that this will happen. The worrying thing for football fans is that international games are likely to be hampered by this even more often in the future.
This is because in order to bring better benefit to the club sides, international midweek matches are expected to be played on the Tuesday. This should give the players an extra day to get back to their club and prepare for the weekend’s matches, which is good for the people that pay the players wages.
However, if the first international game remains on the Saturday, it is going to allow one day less for rest and recuperation with the inevitable situation that some key players could miss out. Bosnia and Herzegovina will be hoping that the absence of Misimovic will not hamper them too much but with so much riding on this match, it is unfortunate such a key player will miss out.
Regardless of who takes the field, you can bet every player will be giving their all for their World Cup dream.
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