Belgium and Portugal started their European Under 21 Championship with a 0-0 draw at the Euroborg stadium in Gronginen.

Both the teams tried to play an attacking brand of football in order to live up to their pre-tournament favorites tag, but were unable to find a breakthrough. Belgium looked slightly better of the two teams and had a host of chances in the first half but were unable to convert any of them.

Early chances in the match fell to Portugal, who started the game with as many as five players who started their careers from the Sporting Clube de Portugal academy. Manuel Fernandes saw his shot hit the side netting while Yannick Djalo's shot, following a superb through pass from Joao Moutinho, went wastefully straight to keeper Logan Bailly.

Belgium started to settle into a rhythm and slowly managed to take control of the match. Kevin Mirallas had two of the best chances of the match, but was unable to convert them into goals. Mirallas managed to latch on to a pass from Anthony Vanden Borre and looked certain to score with keeper Paulo Ribeiro awfully exposed, but somehow managed to drag the shot wide.

Mirallas then took control of a brilliant long ball from midfielder Marouane Fellaini but once again looked well short of shooting practice. Portugal defense was kept busy throughout the match, with Vanden Borre coming close to breaking the deadlock twice, but some how managed to keep out the Belgian attack.

Belgium had injury and fitness worries ahead of this game, as ten of their starting line-up were included in the senior team for the game against Finland in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. However they managed to put all these worries behind them to challenge the might of Portugal.

Portugal coach José Couceiro will be looking for a better performance from his team when they face Netherlands on Wednesday, while Belgium are favorites to win the next match against Israel, who went down 1-0 in their opener to the Netherlands.