Paulo Bernardo led Portugal’s Under-21 side as captain in their goalless stalemate with France on Wednesday night, opening their European Championship campaign with a share of the spoils in Slovakia.

The Celtic midfielder played the full ninety minutes in Trencin, anchoring the Portuguese midfield with a composed performance.

Bernardo dictated much of the play, finding his teammates with consistent accuracy, completing 94 percent of his passes across the contest. Despite his control in possession, he was left disappointed after failing to convert two clear chances to give Portugal the lead.

Portugal and France struggled to find a cutting edge over the course of the match, with both sides limited to half-chances in a tightly contested game. Portugal registered three efforts on target while France edged that tally with four, and possession narrowly favoured the French by a six percent margin.

Elsewhere in Group C, Georgia picked up an important 2-1 victory over Poland in their opening fixture at MSK Zilina, adding early pressure to the group standings as the teams jostle for position.

Attention now turns to Saturday afternoon, where Bernardo’s Portugal side meet Poland at 2pm in their second group outing. They will conclude the group phase with a clash against Georgia on Tuesday evening at 5pm. Only the top two nations from each group will progress to the quarter-finals.

This summer’s competition is also being used to trial UEFA’s new goalkeeper rule, limiting time in possession to eight seconds.

The referee will begin a visible countdown over the final five seconds once full control of the ball is established. Should pressure be applied during that countdown, play will be halted and an indirect free-kick awarded to the goalkeeper’s side.