Portugal have top-level defenders, discipline and flair in midfield, and creativity and goals in attack, plus what their manager believes is the perfect blend of youth and experience. They will take some stopping at Euro 2024…
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The manager
After falling short of winning a title with one country’s ‘golden generation’ of players, Roberto Martinez is now tasked with going one better with another set.
Martinez led Belgium to the top of FIFA’s world rankings and kept them there for more than half of his six-year tenure but, across three major tournaments, they couldn’t go that final step. They lost to World Cup winners France in the semi-finals in 2018 and European Championship winners Italy in the quarters in 2021. Martinez’s reign ended horribly in 2022 with an embarrassing group-stage exit from the Qatar World Cup, bowing out after drawing 0-0 with Croatia when the only target Romelu Lukaku hit was the dugout in a post-match rage.
Martinez is a likeable figure and has started with Portugal in the same fashion he did with Belgium; winning matches and playing a welcome brand of high-energy attacking football that fans can embrace.
They cruised through qualifying with 10 victories from Martinez’s first 10 matches in charge. In March came the first hiccup, a 2-0 friendly defeat to Slovenia, but Martinez is still experimenting with tactics and formations (3-4-3, 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-2 with a ‘box midfield’ have been tried) as he looks to crack the elusive Portugal attacking formula while keeping enough defensive rigidity to win a tournament.
His predecessor, Fernando Santos, will forever be an icon for leading Portugal to glory in Euro 2016, but he was a defensive coach and when Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Joao Felix, Diogo Jota, Goncalo Ramos and Rafael Leao joined Cristiano Ronaldo in Portugal’s attacking ranks, the public wanted panache from their team.
Santos couldn’t combine flair with victories to the level required and that task now falls upon Martinez.
With Belgium, things went stale for him as their best players aged and he regressed to more of a counter-attacking style. With Portugal, things still feel fresh and exciting. Could they be about to hit a sweet spot in Germany?
Roberto Martinez will aim to win the trophy he couldn’t with Belgium (Damjan Zibert/Getty Images)
The household name in waiting
Joao Neves has the potential to be the breakout star of the whole tournament.
He only made his senior club debut 18 months ago but, by the end of 2023, Neves, 19, was in the Portugal squad and an inspirational presence in Benfica’s midfield.
What is he good at? Well, pretty much everything. Think Rodri without the experience and nous, but with added energy and pizzazz. A ball-winner, tackler, tempo dictator, dribbler, excellent passer and decent in front of goal. Neves plays as a No 6 (deep-lying midfielder) for Benfica but he can push higher up the pitch.
“The best way to judge a player is to look at the reaction in the changing room,” Martinez said of Neves. “Joao, at 19 years of age, earned the respect of the changing room in two days. I’d never seen that in my career. It was striking.”
Martinez restricted him to a total of 40 minutes across his first five caps, but he was unleashed for the full game in Portugal’s 4-2 friendly win over Finland this week. Given his vast array of qualities, there is little doubt Neves is headed for the very top. It’s just a matter of when.
Strengths
Options. Portugal’s squad is ludicrously strong, to the extent that Sporting Lisbon forward Pedro Goncalves (18 goals and 17 assists in all competitions last season) and Braga attacker Ricardo Horta (13 goals and 14 assists) and didn’t get in the 26. Manchester City’s Matheus Nunes didn’t get in initially, either, but was called up as a replacement for the injured Otavio.
If you’re a fan of the Champions League or Wolverhampton Wanderers, Portugal’s players will be very familiar to you — three-quarters of the squad either played in that competition or for that team last season.
There is high-end quality everywhere. For example, they can cope with the absence of their only injured first-team player, Bayern Munich left-back Raphael Guerreiro, because they can just play some guy from Paris Saint-Germain called Nuno Mendes. Or if not him how about Joao Cancelo? Or Diogo Dalot?
The same is true of every position. It’s almost the same squad as in Qatar, but with Jota (who was injured in 2022) in, plus three bright new young things Goncalo Inacio (22-year-old Sporting centre-back), Neves and Francisco Conceicao (21-year-old Porto forward). The fit-again Pedro Neto is also in and if he can replicate his form from the opening months of the Premier League season, he will be an asset from the bench.
Also since Qatar, certain players have improved or come to the fore, with Joao Palhinha and Rafael Leao earning much more game time than under Santos, while gifted PSG midfielder Vitinha was in Ligue 1’s team of the season for 2023-24.
Ronaldo was also restored to the XI after being dropped during the World Cup. He scored 10 in qualifying and, aged 38, remains the figurehead, leader and focal point of this Portugal side. He’s about to play in his sixth Euros.
Portugal can call on Bernardo Silva and Bruno Fernandes (Sebastian Frej/Getty Images)
Weaknesses
Working out how best to use Ronaldo, Fernandes, Bernardo, Leao, Jota, Joao Felix, Ramos and the rest is a problem any manager would want, so it’s hardly a weakness, but also not an easy puzzle to solve, as Santos found out when Portugal wilted in losing 2-0 to a stubborn, organised low block from Morocco in the quarter-finals in Qatar.
In the defence, there is a big question mark over who will partner Ruben Dias, with youngsters Antonio Silva, 20, from Benfica and Inacio rotated during qualifying with a man two decades their senior in Pepe who, yes, is still in the Portuguese ranks at 41. Goalkeeper Diogo Costa boobed at the World Cup but is usually a solid presence.
There is also the fact that Martinez will go into the tournament having not been presented with a difficult competitive match yet.
Winning all 10 qualifiers was an impressive feat but, to be fair, the group was so easy Portugal’s under-21s could have won it given the standard of opposition in Slovakia (48th in FIFA’s rankings), Iceland (72nd), Bosnia & Herzegovina (74th), Luxembourg (87th) and Liechtenstein (202nd).
Thing you didn’t know
If Pepe plays in Germany, he’ll become the oldest player to play in a European Championship, taking the record from Hungary goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly, whose body, mind and tracksuit bottoms were 40 years and 86 days old when he played against Belgium in 2016.
Expectations back home
In the group stage, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Georgia probably won’t provide much resistance, but Portugal are looking far beyond that. They are good enough to win it and expectations are duly very high.
Portugal’s squad for Euro 2024
Goalkeepers: Diogo Costa (Porto), Rui Patricio (Roma), Jose Sa (Wolves)
Defenders: Ruben Dias (Manchester City), Danilo Pereira (PSG), Antonio Silva (Benfica), Pepe (Porto), Goncalo Inacio (Sporting), Nelson Semedo (Wolves), Joao Cancelo (Barcelona), Diogo Dalot (Manchester United), Nuno Mendes (PSG).
Midfielders: Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United), Vitinha (PSG), Ruben Neves (Al Hilal), Joao Palhinha (Fulham), Joao Neves (Benfica), Matheus Nunes (Manchester City)
Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo (Al Nassr), Diogo Jota (Liverpool), Bernardo Silva (Manchester City), Joao Felix (Barcelona, on loan from Atletico Madrid), Rafael Leao (AC Milan), Goncalo Ramos (PSG), Pedro Neto (Wolves), Francisco Conceicao (Porto)