Bosnia-Herzegovina Vs. Portugal, Euro 2012 Qualifying, Playoffs: Scoreless Draw Sets Up Fascinating Return Leg

Who says games need to have goals to be exciting? The first half of Bosnia-Portugal was fairly boring, with the ball bogged down (sometimes literally) in the midfield far too often, but the second was rather more thrilling, with each team having numerous chances to win and take a huge advantage into the second leg next week. Ultimately, neither side did, but it said a lot about the match that both Bosnia and Portugal both had a chance to win it in the final minute of stoppage time.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Helder Postiga were the men most responsible for the visitors failing to break the deadlock, the former having two huge opportunities while the latter specialised in turning half-chances into absolutely nothing, but Bosnia really grew into the game in the second half and ended the match as the better side, with substitute Veded Ibisevic botching two straightforward one-on-one chances in the dying minutes (there were other, less egregious errors on the attack as well).

The 93rd minute first saw Bosnia keeper Asmir Begovic almost fail to collect a ball in his own six yard box, letting it slip from his grasp to sit tantalisingly in an open goalmouth before he scramble atop it with pretty much everyone who's ever worn a red shirt charging in, and then within thirty seconds Edin Dzeko forced Rui Patricio into a phenomenal stop after the Manchester City man fashioned a one on one. It turned out that Dzeko's chance didn't matter that much - he was offside - but it was rather indicative of the tempo in the second half. Both teams were desperate for a goal, and that led to some very entertaining football despite the 0-0 scoreline.

We've got a cracker of a match to look forward to next week.

We have coverage of this match and all of the Euro 2012 Qualifying playoffs action in our Euro 2012 Qualifying playoffs, first legs StoryStream. For more on the entire world of football, check out SB Nation Soccer.