The opener came after just ten minutes when the experienced head of Ricardo Carvalho met Coentrão’s curling cross and speared it past Stoijkovic. Scorer Carvalho was forced off through injury six minutes later to be replaced by Southampton’s José Fonte, a suitable reward for the defender’s fantastic season in the Premier League with Southampton. The Serbia side included five Premier League players Ivanovic and Matic from Chelsea, Kolarov from Manchester City, Markovic from Liverpool and Tadic from Southampton.
After a quiet start, Cristiano Ronaldo was back to his old self as he roamed at will and one shot in particular produced a flying save from Stoijkovic as the ball rocketed towards the top corner of the goal. When he again danced through the left side of the Serbian defence, he was blocked at the very last moment. With Cristiano appearing in the middle as well as on the left, the Serbian defence were having a torrid time trying to track him.
The second-half saw the visitors controlling vast amounts of possession in the first fifteen minutes. Their perseverance paid dividends with a wonder goal in the 61st minute. Nemanja Matic flew into the air to produce a left foot scissors kick that flew past Rui Patrício to make it all level. It was a truly breathtaking piece of skill by the big midfielder. Two minutes later and Portugal were back in front when Moutinho’s great ball across the penalty area found Fábio Coentrão at the far post. The cultured Real Madrid and former Benfica favourite calmly slid the ball past Stoijkovic much to the delight of the majority of the 58,430 crowd.
Despite the setback the Serbs were taking control and Matic again had a ferocious shot saved by Patricio. Fábio Coentrão received a standing ovation for a great night’s work when replaced by Ricardo Quaresma with twelve minutes remaining. Serb tempers becoming frayed, Tosic was booked for chopping down the increasingly influential Moutinho but Portugal kept their cool to record an important 2-1 victory that saw them leapfrog Denmark, who have a game in-hand, at the top of the group. Portugal’s next game is away to Armenia on the 13 June.