Stephen Kenny’s men were impressive throughout and went close with chances of note from Josh Cullen and Chiedozie Ogbene.
The early exchanges of the first half saw the away side look to take an early lead, Cristiano Ronaldo got in behind the Irish defense but Matt Doherty was on hand to force the ball away for a corner.
Gavin Bazunu then made an excellent save to stop André Silva’s rising effort, the resulting corner was cleared by Josh Cullen. Callum Robinson had the first sight on goal for the home side as he cut inside from the left-wing onto his right foot and his effort from distance forced a smart save from Rui Patrício.
John Egan had another opportunity for the home side from a Jamie McGrath corner but his header went wide of the target. Robinson once again had an opportunity after some clever link-up play between Jamie McGrath and Chiedozie Ogbebne, Robinson’s shot on the edge of the area just went past Patrício’s post.
The best chance of the half for Ireland came when Robinson’s clever cross on the left was met by Ogbebne at the near post but he couldn’t direct his header on target.
Ireland started the second half brightly had a glimpse of goal early on, a mistake in the Portuguese defense saw Ogbene lay off a clever pass to Josh Cullen but his low curling effort was well saved.
Ronaldo had two big opportunities to put his side ahead but both went wide of the post, the first came when Andres Silva found the forward in the Ireland goal area with his header going just wide of Bazunu’s post, his second chance saw that curling effort from the left also go wide.
Portugal was reduced to ten men after Pepe received two yellow cards in the space of ten minutes, the defender was adjudged to have fouled Callum Robinson and was sent off for the challenge.
Ireland did try to put this numerical advantage to the test and looked like they had won it when Will Keane seemed to win the ball from Patrício cleanly to set up Matt Doherty but the referee pulled it back for a foul, so it ended goalless.