Lucky No. 7 to be heavenly for Ronaldo?
How tHey qualified: 1st in Group I; P8 W7 L1 21pts. Albania (h) 0-1; Denmark (a) 0-1; Armenia (h) 1-0; Serbia (h) 2-1; Armenia (a) 2-3; Albania (a) 0-1; Denmark (h) 1-0; Serbia (a) 1-2.
CoaCH: Fernando Santos TOOK the reins after the opening defeat by Albania in qualifying and guided Portugal to the Finals with a series of narrow wins.
Previously in charge of Greece, Santos (right) took them to the quarter-finals of Euro 2012 and the last 16 at the World Cup, so the Portuguese will demand at least something similar.
A manager for nearly 30 years, his career has flitted between Portugal and Greece, and he has managed Benfica, Porto and Sporting Lisbon in his homeland. He’s nicknamed ‘the Engineer’ after gaining a degree in the subject during his playing days.
StaR PlayeR: Cristiano Ronaldo IT is easy to pick out Cristiano Ronaldo. For years now, he has battled with Lionel Messi for the tile of Best Player on the Planet.
How he fares in France will add to that debate. But the Portuguese player making all the headlines right now is Renato Sanches.
The teenager began the season in Benfica’s B team, but has made astonishing progress. He broke into the first-team in November and became a mainstay as the Eagles won the title and reached the Champions League quarter-finals.
Such was Sanches’ progress, he has moved to Bayern Munich in a deal that could reach £60 million.
aNalySiS:
AS ever, focus on Portugal means focus on Cristiano Ronaldo. This will be the Real Madrid superstar’s seventh tourney and he has still come no closer than in his first one when as hosts, Portugal lost in the Final to surprise winners Greece.
Since then there has been a steady decline and they even failed to get out of their group at the World Cup in Brazil.
Two years on, Ronaldo remains the team’s talisman, captain and most-likely goalscorer and his team-mates will look to him at every opportunity. It’s no surprise considering he has scored more goals than the rest of the squad combined.
Portugal will likely line up in a 4-3-3 formation, similar to the one favoured by Madrid, with Ronaldo expected to play on the left with licence to drift in, as he does so effectively at club level.
There will be plenty of familiar figures from previous tournaments such as Pepe, Nani and Joao Moutinho, but they will be joined by some exciting new talent.
Portugal were runners-up in last summer’s European Under-21 Championship, and the best players from that team, William Carvalho and Joao Mario of Sporting Lisbon, have graduated to the senior side.
Along with countries of a similar size, like Belgium, it’s more realistic to think of Portugal winning the Euros than a World Cup and they will expect a strong showing here.
They are in, by far, the weakest group and anything less than the quarter-finals would be a disappointment.