A look at Portugal’s World Cup hopes

Under normal circumstances, all eyes on the Portugal national team are on Cristiano Ronaldo, who is regarded as one of the best players in Portugal’s history and one of the best in world football history. However, Fernando Santos’ team has excellent chemistry, perhaps unparalleled in the competition.

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To this day, the spotlight continues to point to Cristiano, although his recent controversial interview on Sky Sports, which created an uncomfortable atmosphere within the Portuguese locker room due to the way in which some of his teammates have taken his statements. Can they still make history in the World Cup? Let’s find out.

Manager

Fernando Santos led Portugal to the UEFA Euro in 2016 and the UEFA Nations League in 2019, which are the two most important football trophies in the country’s history, so the federation and the players are fully behind his project. Most of the time, Santos is a very practical coach who uses the speed of his attacking players to launch very dangerous counterattacks.

Main Players

Logically, the main reference of the national team is Cristiano Ronaldo although, despite the quality and goalscoring ability of the still Manchester United player, he does not arrive at his best moment due to his lack of continuity with the Red Devils (where his participation was mainly in the UEFA Europa League matches) as well as the controversies that are surrounding him due to his recent statements that have fallen badly on some of his teammates, such as Bruno Fernandes.

In addition to Cristiano, the trio of Manchester City players, Bernardo Silva, Joao Cancelo and Ruben Dias, or the star of AC Milan, Rafael Leao, who has just had a very good season, stand out. The young Atlético de Madrid player, Joao Felix, also stands out. He has not just had a good season with his club but he has great ability and quality that can make him an important offensive alternative for Santos.

Absences

Santos has opted for a solid base during a large part of his project and has maintained it for the call to the World Cup in Qatar. In this sense, the main absence is that of Diogo Jota due to injury and Joao Moutinho and José Fonte due to a matter of age. From this point of view, the coach has most of the team he expected for the competition.

Prediction

Because of how important he is to the Portugal national team, Cristiano Ronaldo will almost certainly be the usual striker in the team’s starting eleven, even though his level may not be as high as in other competitions, which will hurt his team’s performance. With this in mind, we have that Portugal is in group H and its main rival to qualify for first place is Uruguay.

In this group, finishing second means, barring a surprise, facing Brazil in the round of 16, which, if so, could make it difficult for Portugal to advance from that round. If they advance first in their group, Santos’ team’s chances of reaching the quarterfinals increase considerably, but it doesn’t seem like they’ll get any further.