Euro 2024 draw is tomorrow, Portugal placed in Pot 1. Everything you need to know
The final draw for the EURO2024 final round will take place tomorrow at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany.
Twenty-one of the qualifiers are already known and the remaining three will only be determined in March, once the play-offs involving 12 countries are concluded.
Although the names of the last three finalists are still not known, UEFA has already divided the 24 nations into four pots, based on their performances in the qualifying round.
Each pot will have six teams, with the main focus on Pot 1, reserved for the top seeded teams - a group that includes the host nation Germany, plus Portugal, France, Spain, Belgium and England.
Portugal earned a spot in the coveted Pot 1 with a historic run, nearing perfection with 10 wins in 10 games, scoring 36 goals and conceding only 2. Being in Pot 1 avoids early battles with the top contenders, some of the teams that have always given the ‘seleção’ fits.
Against Germany, in 18 games Portugal has only 3 wins, suffered 11 defeats and registered 5 draws.
They have already played 28 games against France and the record is equally negative, with 19 losses, 3 draws and only six wins. But the sweetest of victories came in 2016, in the biggest success of the Portuguese national team, when Éder’s goal, in the 109th minute, in the final played in Paris, shocked the French, and gave the title to Portugal.
Against England, it all started in 1947, when Portugal were crushed 10-0. More memorable games followed, a few more in favor of the English, including the controversial semi-final of the 1966 World Cup, where Portugal fell, 2-1. But there were also important victories over the English, dating back to 1986, a 1-0 win in the World Cup in Mexico; and the fantastic comeback at Euro 2000 in the Netherlands, where England made it 2-0, but Portugal turned things around and won 3-2.
Then there was the round of 16 game in the Euro 2004, with Portugal winning on penalties, in the unforgettable game where goalkeeper Ricardo Pereira first took off his gloves to save Darius Vessell’s shot and then cut off of Nuno Valente and he himself converted the penalty that put Portugal through to the next round.
And at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Ricardo was decisive once again, this time saving three penalties to eliminate England and put Portugal in the semi-finals.
Spain are another very thorny opponent. In 40 games, Portugal has only 6 wins, against 17 victories for the Spaniards and 17 draws. Portugal's last win came at Euro 2004, when Nuno Gomes' goal led the team to victory, 1-0, and put Portugal in the round of 16 where they beat England.
Finally, there is Belgium. Interestingly, Portugal’s current coach, Spaniard Roberto Martinez, was Belgium's coach in 2021, at Euro 2020 that had been postponed due to the Covid pandemic, and his former team eliminated the ‘Seleção’. But statistically, neither side has the upper hand, with six wins for each country and seven draws.
In any case, being in Pot 1 and avoiding these difficult rivals in the first round is very important, as Roberto Martinez indicated on Monday.
“We have an interesting day ahead of us, which is the draw. The draw will dictate the other opponent before the European Championship,” Martinez said. “It’s important to know who we’re going to face first and to be in pot 1, but the draw is also about luck. The qualifying phase we did will prepare us for the Euro.”
When addressing the national team’s goals for Euro2024, the coach was rather cautious.
“The Seleção has a dream, the players want to make the Portuguese people happy, but first you have to know the draw. Then we need to get through the group stage, the knockout round, go step by step, let's see what we can do, but we want to create memories for the Portuguese people,” said the national team coach.
Makeup of the pots
Host Germany are in Pot 1 and are automatically allocated to Group A in position A1. The three play-off winners were placed in Pot 4.
Here is the constitution of the 4 pots;
Pot 1: Germany, Portugal, France, Spain, Belgium and England.
Pot 2: Hungary, Turkey, Romania, Denmark, Albania and Austria.
Pot 3: Netherlands, Scotland, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia and Czechia.
Pot 4: Italy, Serbia, Switzerland, Play-off Winner A, Play-off Winner B and Play-Off Winner C.
The draw will be streamed live on the UEFA.com website and the official EURO 2024 app from at 12:00 (New England time), on Saturday, December 2.
As host, Germany is automatically placed in Group A. The draw will place the remaining teams in Pot 1 in Groups B through F. The same process will apply to the teams in Pots 2, 3 and 4, placing them in Groups A to F.
The teams are also given a designation within their group, which will determine the schedule of their matches. The only pre-determination is once again reserved for to the host country and Germany will thus occupy position A1. And as usual, the host nation will play in the opening match in Munich at the Allianz Arena on Friday 14 June.
Play-offs
The draw for the EURO 2024 play-offs took place on Thursday and defined the pairings that will compete for the remaining three spots. UEFA explained that three paths had been created, A, B and C, all based on performance in the Nations League.
Path C holds the three group winners from League C (Georgia, Greece and Kazakhstan), and one runner-up from League C (Luxembourg). The first two matches will be: Georgia-Luxembourg and Greece-Kazakhstan.
Path B has two League B runners-up (Ukraine and Iceland) and two League B group winners (Israel and Bosnia and Herzegovina). The games: Israel-Iceland, Bosnia and Herzegovina-Ukraine.
Path A includes two teams from League A (Poland and Wales), a runner-up from League B (Finland), and Estonia from League D.
These first six games, or semi-finals of each path, will take place on Thursday March 21, 2024, and the three finals are scheduled for March 26.
Game dates and stadium locations
The group stage will run from June 14 to June 26; the round of 16 will be played between June 29 and July 2 ; the quarter-finals are scheduled for July 5 and 6; the semi-finals will be held on July 9 and 10 and the final will be played on 14 July.
The 10 stadiums chosen for the game are: Berlin - Olympiastadion Berlin, Cologne - Cologne Stadium (RheinEnergieSTADION), Dortmund - BVB Stadion Dortmund (Signal Iduna Park), Dusseldorf - Dusseldorf Arena (MERKUR SPIEL-ARENA), Frankfurt - Frankfurt Arena (Deutsche Bank Park), Gelsenkirchen - AufSchalke Arena (Veltins-Arena), Hamburg - Volksparkstadion Hamburg, Leipzig - Leipzig Stadium (Red Bull Arena), Munich - Munich Football Arena (Allianz Arena) and Stuttgart - Stuttgart Arena (MHPArena).
Portugal placed among the favorites
Several media outlets and online betting sites have already started drawing up lists of possible candidates, although the draw may change some of these predictions.
The site goal.com placed Germany, currently number 16 in the FIFA rankings, at fifteenth. The decision is based on the series of bad results that the 'Die Mannschaft' has registered in most recent games, namely the defeats against Turkey and Austria, and also because of the three coaching changes.
But the writer warns that the hosts still have some time before the Euro to put their house in order and highlights the number of excellent players at Julian Nagelsmann’s disposal.
For this publication, France, number 2 in the rankings, behind only world champion Argentina, is the likely winner, followed on the list by Portugal.
After highlighting Portugal’s immaculate record during the qualifying stage, the journalist warned that “their qualifying group was absolutely atrocious,” and added that “it also remains to be seen whether [coach Roberto] Martinez is really capable of delivering in a major tournament, given the way he squandered Belgium’s ‘Golden Generation’.”
Spain, England and Belgium came next.
Journalist Ian Watson, from football365.com, considers England to be the top title contender, followed by France, Germany, Spain and Portugal.
But the most flawed analysis of Portugal’s chances belongs to James Cormack of ‘90min.com.’ After placing France at the top of his list, followed by England, he considered Portugal to be in third place. In explaining his logic, Cormack began by writing that “from a talent perspective, Portugal can compete against anyone in the world. Their squad is laden with stars across the board, and they’ll enter Euro 2024 as one of the favorites.” Obviously, no problem there.
But then he really messed up when he warned that there are however concerns over whether Fernando Santos can lead them to silverware once again following their unlikely success at Euro 2016. This Portugal side has been compromised by Santos’ antiquated ideals at the two most recent major tournaments.
Although Cormack is right in his assessment of Fernando Santos, the problem is that he was dismissed as Portugal’s coach last December, so there is no need to be worried about the former coach’s old-fashioned ideas.
For the betting sites, the top contender varies between England, France and Germany, with Portugal often appearing in the fifth position.
For certain, we are still a long way from the Euro, many things, such as a drop in form and injuries, can change the narratives, and even the draw can pose unexpected obstacles. So, fans should wait, calmly. Tomorrow, in the draw, the first dice will come out.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Euro 2024 finals draw is tomorrow, Portugal is in Pot 1. All details here
