The 2024/25 season is finally over for Paulo Bernardo.
Celtic’s domestic campaign ended last month, but Bernardo has been in action for Portugal U21s in recent weeks at the European Championships.
Bernardo started every game for the Portugal U21s, as well as donning the captain’s armband, but their defeat to the Netherlands U21 on Saturday evening is one they will want to forget as quickly as possible.
The Dutch were down to ten men after 21 minutes when Ruben van Bommel was shown a second yellow card, on top of the fact that Portugal winger Geovany Quenda, missed a first half penalty.
The inevitable was going to happen, and it did, with substitute Ernest Poku scoring the winning goal six minutes from time and booking his side’s semi-final ticket.
In every game at the tournament, Bernardo has been subbed, and he lasted just over an hour before being taken off by his manager, Rui Jorge, against the Dutch.
Paulo Bernardo criticised after Portugal U21s crash out of European Championships
Bernardo was playing inside a diamond formation, as a left-sided number eight, and he was getting forward and making runs inside the penalty area.
One run resulted in the Celtic man getting on the end of a cross from the right-hand side, when he got in front of his man, but he couldn’t get a clean contact on the ball, and it was aimed straight at Dutch keeper Robin Roefs.
Speaking on Channel 4’s coverage of the game, Joe Cole and Jermain Defoe were critical of Bernardo for not taking his chance, including how Portugal’s young guns played with ‘fear’ despite having the extra man advantage throughout the game.
“Bernardo has to score, he has to score,” said Cole. “It goes wide. The delivery into the box. He does okay, Jermain. He gets across him.
“Listen, the master finisher is sitting here to my left. He dispatches this, no problem.”
Defoe responded: “Good movement. Good contact. Just a little bit more on it. Maybe if the cross was a little bit harder. Maybe a little bit more on it. It’s a chance. Sometimes, you see the goalkeeper’s position, so there is space on that (other) side of the goal.
“It’s good movement, but it’s small margins. When you get these chances. You have to make the best of these chances.”
Cole then added: “Portugal played like a team with a fear of not winning. It was disabling them.”
How Celtic’s Bernardo rated for Portugal U21s
At the age of 23, Bernardo is one of the most experienced players in the tournament, so he will be disappointed with an early exit – his teammate, Quenda, is the youngest at the tournament, after turning 18 on April 30.
On top of that, just like with the problems that occur at Celtic, he didn’t complete 90 minutes, which, once again, isn’t a good look for the player.
Bernardo was handed a rating of 7.1 by SofaScore against the Dutch, as he failed to have an impact on the match.
- Minutes played: 63
- Touches: 43
- Accurate passes: 28/31
- Key Passes: 0
- Long Balls: 1
- Ground duels won: 3/5
- Aerial duels won: 0/1
- Fouls: 1
- Fouled: 1
- Total tackles: 2
- Dribbled past: 1
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