Analysis: Demands increase for Portugal to declare itself a favorite to win Euro2024

The candidate status of Portugal’s national team in the upcoming European Championship became one of the most discussed topics in the closing days of the year, with several media outlets “demanding” that our team declare itself as one of the favorites.

The bar was raised when Fernando Gomes, the current president of the Portuguese Football Federation, in an exclusive interview with sports daily ‘O Jogo’, when asked about the Federation’s objectives for the European Championship, replied: “the minimum required is to reach the semi-finals. But what I would like is to be European champion.”

Lídia Paralta Gomes, a well-known journalist from Tribuna Expresso, following up on the President’s confident opinion, on Tuesday published an article entitled “A national team that is a favorite and cannot be modest,” where she attempted to explain why our team must assume the status of favorite to win the title.

“At Euro 2024, an event that will mark the next sporting year, Portugal will be more than a candidate for something: it is one of the favorites, a status that it will have to assume in June, in Germany,” Gomes wrote.

Portugal’s uphill path

In reality, gone are the days when Portugal fought primarily for a spot in the final round, knowing that it would be very challenging just to get out of the group stage, let alone dream of winning the title.

The first sign that Portugal was emerging on the European stage occurred in 1984. After an absence of almost 20 years, the team, at the time coached by Fernando Cabrita, reached the semi-finals, where they faced the hosts, a French side led by captain Michel Platini.

In Marseille, at the Stade Vélodrome, France took the lead through Domergue in the 24th minute, but Rui Jordão, one of the best strikers in the history of Portuguese soccer, off an assist from Fernando Chalana, another unique talent, tied the game in the 74th minute, forcing extra time.

In the overtime, Jordão again took advantage of Chalana’s assist to put Portugal ahead, but Domergue equalized in the 114th minute and five minutes later Platini ended Portugal’s dream.

Another 12 years went by before the Portuguese national team earned another trip to the final phase of the European Championship.

In 1996, the so-called “golden generation” of Portuguese soccer, made up of the two-time junior world champions (1989 and 1991), came out of the group stage, but fell in the first knock-out game. Karel Poborsky, who two years later would end up signing for Sport Lisboa Benfica, scored the lone goal of the game as the Czech Republic sent Portugal home.

Four years after that Portugal survived the group stage and reached the semi-finals again, for another meeting with France, at the time the defending world champions.

Once again, Portugal was able to grab a lead, on a goal from Nuno Gomes, but Thierry Henry equalized in the 51st minute. And Zinadine Zidane’s controversial penalty, awarded by Slovakia’s Igor Sramk, for an alleged handball by Abel Xavier, put France through to the final.

Then came 2004, which marked the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo, at the time already at Manchester United. His debut with the national team on Aug. 20, 2003, at age 18, came in a friendly match played at the Municipal de Chaves Stadium, against Kazakhstan. After his arrival, Portugal never again failed to qualify for the final phase of any major competition, with eight consecutive appearances in the European Championship, and five more in the World Cup.

As a result, Lídia Paralta Gomes wrote that Portugal “is one of the favorites because it has, more than ever, the ingredients needed to win, either because of the abundance of talent or because of the stability that other teams are lacking. Portugal has to cherish the victory in the European Championship and there are no cautions or chicken broths that can threaten to undermine this evidence.”

Commentator Tomás da Cunha, a member of a number of different media outlets, from TSF to Eleven Sports, now DAZN, where he expertly analyzes the games in the English Premier League, teams up with Lídia Paralta Gomes in the podcast ‘No Princípio Era a Bola’ at Tribuna Expresso and agrees that Portugal is one of the favorites.

“Portugal already knows how to win. Between the Nations League (2019) and the European Championship (2016), the national team removed that psychological hurdle, so all conditions are set up to go far,” he said.

For Tomás da Cunha, France and England are the only teams with the ability to possibly overcome Portugal.

France, finalists in the last World Cup, where they lost to Lionel Messi’s Argentina, have the highest quality squad and “the Griezmann/Mbappé is the most difficult duo to defend in national team soccer.”

England, on the other hand, despite not playing “spectacular soccer, far from it,” has in his opinion in Jude Bellingham “one of the most in-form players today, alongside the likes of Harry Kane, Phil Foden or Bukayo Saka.”

“Looking back at the last big tournaments, England has always been in the decisive stages. It’s not unreasonable to think that they can make a final again or even win,” concluded Tomás da Cunha.

Diário de Notícias, a Lisbon-based daily newspaper, on Thursday also raised the bar in an article entitled “Portugal are favorites like never before in Ronaldo’s last European Championship.”

“The national team is one of the top favorites to win the European title in the tournament that will take place in Germany, between June 14 and July 14,” wrote Carlos Nogueira. “The team coached by Roberto Martínez presents itself with this status on its own merit, after all it was the only team to finish the qualifying phase with only victories in the 10 games in the group, and they added the best attack with 36 goals scored and the least beaten defense: only two conceded.”

For him, the key to success lies in the mix of talent at the disposal of coach Roberto Martinez. In addition to the ‘eternal’ Cristiano Ronaldo, who, at the age of 38, ended the calendar year 2023 as the top scorer in the world, with 54 goals, there is a vast squad of talented players who currently represent some of the best clubs in the world, including João Cancelo, Rúben Dias, Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Jota in England, and Rafael Leão in Italy. There are also Diogo Costa, António Silva, Gonçalo Inácio and João Neves, youngsters who continue to play in Portugal, but have already been identified and targeted to move on to some of the European giants.

Roberto Martinez seeks his first title

For seven seasons, 50-year-old Spaniard Roberto Martínez led the Belgium national team, which from September 2018 to February 2021was considered the best in the world. And at the start of the World Cup in Qatar, the Belgians were number 2 in the FIFA rankings, but failed to get out of the group stage. As a result, Martinez resigned and in January 2023 was appointed Portugal’s coach, replacing Fernando Santos.

His leadership of the ‘seleção’ has been impeccable, as Portugal have won all 10 qualifying matches, conceding only two goals, in contrast to the 36 scored. But for some observers, Portugal has benefited from falling into a very uncompetitive group, so the European Championship in Germany will be something of a litmus test as Martinez continues to search for his first international title of his career.

Bookmakers don’t fully believe in Portugal

Possibly because of ease in qualifying for the Euro2024, bookmakers put England, France, Germany and Spain ahead of Portugal on the list of favorites.

Ryan Dabbs, on the website ‘fourfourtwo.com,’ placed Portugal in fifth position.

“The Euro 2016 winners are certainly a strong side, too, with the likes of Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias and João Felix all featuring in a very strong squad. Whether they’re coherent enough as a team is another question, though, while the jury’s still out on whether Roberto Martinez is good enough to lead Portugal to only their second international trophy in history,” was the explained provided by Dabbs to justify selecting England, France, Germany and Spain as the main favorites.

But Luis de la Fuente, Spain’s national team coach, placed Portugal among the title contenders for Euro-2024.

“We are in a position to fight for victory. There are teams that have the same level as us and are in the same situation. The approach we have to take is to fight to win just like other top teams that will be there, like France, England, Germany, Portugal, Italy and Croatia,” de la Fuente told flashscore.pt.

The site ‘777score.com’ had a similar opinion, publishing the headline “Portugal is a Favorite Like Never Before in Ronaldo’s Last European Championship.”

After listing Portugal’s unequalled success during the qualifying phase, the author highlighted the number of outstanding stars available to Roberto Martinez.

“These are, after all, enough arguments that reinforce Portugal’s candidacy to repeat the feat achieved in 2016, and now the status with which it presents itself in Euro 2024 is much greater than the one with which the Portuguese team started eight years ago for the tournament held in France,” he said.

Last week, in an interview with Sport TV, Roberto Martinez was predictably asked if he considered Portugal to be one of the favorites. 

“During qualifying, our national team earned the respect of the other teams. It’s a natural process,” Martinez replied. “There are no favorites at the European Championship. There is a group of teams that have a level to try to fight for the title and it’s good for us to be in that group.”

“The European Championship is a tournament where games are decided in the details,” he added. “It is a satisfaction for us to know that we have a team that is ready to give everything for our jersey. We’re going to give it our all.” 

Bernardo Silva, considered by many to be the best Portuguese player at the moment, in an interview with the newspaper O Jogo, confessed that winning the title is the big dream.

“Of course,” said Bernardo Silva.

“We have to aim for the highest and the highest is to win the European Championship,” he stressed, adding that in Germany the team will “try to go as far as possible, which is to win. We have that goal.”

“We’re going to do our best to try to win,” Bernardo Silva said in closing. “We won the Nations League, but it doesn’t have the same importance as a European Championship or the World Cup. We want to bring that joy to Portugal.”

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Demands increase for Portugal to declare itself a favorite for Euro2024