Portugal stars pay moving tribute to Diogo Jota before Euro 2025 match vs Italy
Portugal's women's team warmed up in shirts bearing the name of tragic striker Diogo Jota before their Euro 2025 match against Italy. Jota, who died in a car accident last week, won 49 caps for the men's senior side and was part of the UEFA Nations League winning squad earlier in the summer.
UEFA announced there would be a moment of silence ahead of kick-off in all of Thursday's matches after the death of Jota and his brother Andre Silva. This continued over the weekend, with silence observed before England's defeat against France in Zurich.
Portugal lost heavily against Spain in their opening group game, less than 24 hours after learning of the death of the the two footballers. Silva, the younger of the brothers, was on the books of Penafiel in his home country while Jota had just won the Premier League with Liverpool.
"It was a really tough day to play football, because this life is much more than a game, much more than football," forward Jessica Silva said after the match. "Of course everyone is sad. It's heavy, my heart is heavy - much more important things than playing a game."
Manager Francisco Neto said: "Of course, if we had the possibility to change everything, we would change everything for sure. But this is a hard day for us."
READ MORE: Diogo Jota will live forever at Liverpool and beyond - but now is time to grieve
Tributes poured in for Jota and Silva over the last few days, while a funeral service for the pair was held over the weekend in their home town of Gondomar. The Liverpool star's club and international team-mates were in attendance, while others paid private tributes to their former colleague.
"I think we'll all remember where we were, but it goes bigger than football what we're all feeling now," former Liverpool and Wolves centre-back Conor Coady told BBC Sport. "This has hit everybody hard.
"And it will hit everybody hard for a long, long time because Diogo was a fantastic human being, an amazing friend, an amazing husband, an amazing father and an absolutely incredible footballer for all the clubs he has played for.
"He was an unbelievable person. This is celebrating an incredible human being. A human being who should never have left us this early and this [early] into an amazing career."
The tributes came ahead of a game Portugal can't afford to lose. They welcomed Kika Nazareth back into their starting XI for the match in Geneva as they chase a win which could help kick-start their campaign.
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