The minute’s silence was immaculate, poignant, loaded and ultimately broke into applause. “Rest in peace Diogo Jota,” spelled a series of cards held up behind Inês Pereira’s goal; the air was thick with emotion in those moments before kick-off and one of the first things to say is that Portugal’s players deserve the highest admiration for turning out to compete. They may not have shared a dressing room with Jota or his equally mourned brother, André Silva, but that cannot minimise the fact two members of their nation’s tightly-knit footballing family had been taken away in devastating circumstances.
It took guts and no little honour to show up and keep running, probing, scrapping, hunting for moments to take pride in while their opponents left no doubt that they are runaway favourites for this competition. Spain should be lauded, too, for resisting any temptation to go easy, starting at a rattling pace and completing a thoroughly professional job. In their case that often means administering a sound beating and there is no escaping that they delivered one here.
