Euro 2012 - Portugal preview

In most European Championship’s Portugal would be amongst the favourites but they have been drawn in the Group of Death. They reached the final of Euro 2004 but lost to under dogs Greece. Portugal themselves will be hoping for an under dog story in this years Euro’s.

They qualified for the tournament by beating Bosnia and Herzegovina in a play off. They came 2^nd in their qualifying group finishing 3 points behind Denmark. After drawing and losing their first two fixtures then sacking Carlos Queiroz it was a decent achievement to qualify. They beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 6-2 on aggregate in the play off.

Key Players

In Portugal’s favour is that they have arguably the best European footballer in the world Cristiano Ronaldo in their side. He top scored in the Qualifying stage with 7 goals. Ronaldo scored 60 goals for Real Madrid this season and won the La Liga title. If they are to do well they will need Ronaldo to have a brilliant tournament.

With Portugal only keeping two clean sheets in Qualifying it seems attack will be the best policy of defence. Manchester United Nani is another who will be expected to score the goals to get his side through the group. He had an impressive qualification period scoring five goals and having four assists and Bento will be wanting a good tournament from the Manchester man.

Manager

Paulo Bento has thrived as Portugal Manager, he had relative success managing Sporting Lisbon, he won four domestic cups but resigned and was criticised for defensive football. That has changed now he is managing Portugal, he become the first manager to win his first five games in charge and the youngest to take Portugal to a major tournament. If he can get his nation out of the group stages it will be a huge achievement.

Portugal Squad

Goalkeepers: Rui Patricio (Sporting Lisbon), Eduardo (Benfica), Beto (Cluj)

Defenders: Joao Pereira (Sporting Lisbon), Fabio Coentrao (Real Madrid), Bruno Alves (Zenit St Petersburg), Rolando (Porto), Ricardo Costa (Valencia), Pepe (Real Madrid), Miguel Lopes (Sporting Braga)

Midfielders: Raul Meireles (Chelsea), Miguel Veloso (Genoa), Joao Moutinho (Porto), Ruben Micael (Zaragoza), Hugo Viana (Benfica), Custodio (Sporting Braga)

Attackers: Nani (Manchester United), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Hugo Almeida (Besiktas), Ricardo Quaresma (Besiktas), Silvestre Varela (Porto), Helder Postiga (Zaragoza), Nelson Oliveria (Benfica)

With Bento opting for a 4-3-3 formation theres no surprise there is 7 strikers and 6 midfielders. Hugo Viana was a late call up to replace the injured Carlos Martins. Manuel Fernandes omission was a surprise but it is a strong and attacking dominated squad.

Portugal Fixtures – Group B

09/06/12 – Germany v Portugal 19.45 KO

13/06/12 – Denmark v Portugal 17.00 KO

17/06/12 – Portugal v Netherlands 19.45 KO

Prediction

Portugal have it all to do in the Group of Death. They face pre tournament favourites in their opening fixture Germany but the real important games are their last two.

They faced Denmark in the qualifying stage and lost 2-1 to them away from home and were eventually piped to the group winners by the Danes but will be expecting to win that fixture, which could potentially set up a decider against the Netherlands. The Dutch were runners up in the 2010 World Cup so will be expected to challenge at this year European Championships. Portugal have never failed to get out of the group in European Championships so if Cristiano Ronaldo can deliver he could help keep his country’s record up by getting them through the group stages.

Portugal did beat Spain in a friendly 4-0 so they could spring a surprise in this group and top it if the star players perform to their maximum.