Koloskov: Uzbekistan team fell apart in the match against Portugal

Vyacheslav Koloskov, honorary president of the Russian Football Union, analyzed the match of the Uzbekistan national team against Portugal in the group stage of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, Zamin.uz reports.

Uzbekistan lost that match 0:5. According to Koloskov, the national team showed two different faces in the tournament.

Uzbekistan showed two different games at the World Cup. In the match against Colombia, the team acted appropriately, and some individual actions were good.

But in the match against Portugal, the team completely fell apart, he emphasized. According to the specialist, the main problem was that the players did not know how to act against a strong opponent.

He suggested that head coach Fabio Cannavaro might not have paid enough attention to tactical preparation. I got the impression that Cannavaro did not work enough on tactics.

The team first tried to defend deeply with five defenders, but that didn’t work. Then they switched to pressing, but the situation only got worse, Koloskov said.

At the same time, he praised the physical and technical preparation of the Uzbekistan players. The team was not poorly prepared physically and technically.

Uzbekistan is an average-level national team in world football. In my opinion, the deciding factor in this match was precisely tactics, the specialist added.

Koloskov also separately praised Portugal’s performance. According to him, the Europeans played at a high level and showed Uzbekistan a real lesson in skill.

Of course, Portugal also played very strongly and demonstrated their high level, he said. Thus, the expert pointed to tactical errors and the ineffectiveness of the game plan as the main reasons for Uzbekistan’s heavy defeat.

(Source: one.uz)