Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal will look to defend their first ever major international trophy at Euro 2020 this summer, and they’re fancied by many experts to do it. NetBet odds have them pretty close to favourites and world champions France, with odds of 8/1 on offer for them to retain, while it’s the same price for Fernando Santos’ men to just make the final.
Of course, they’ll be reliant on the remarkable skill of Ronaldo, but he was literally missing for the majority of their incredible final performance against France in 2016 and they still managed to lift the trophy at the end of the day. So there’ll be confidence in the Portuguese camp that they can regain their title. They will have been disappointed to have exited the World Cup in just the round of 16, and will want to rectify that situation with Qatar 2022 fast approaching just over a year after this tournament.
Key Players
Bruno Fernandes and Rúben Neves both had big seasons in the Premier League for Manchester United and Wolves respectively, and they’ll be very ready for a big showing at this tournament. Joao Cancelo and Rúben Dias won a Premier League title with Manchester City, and could be on for an historic treble if they beat Chelsea in the Champions League final over the weekend.
Star player Ronaldo will be dying to be involved properly in another major tournament final, but to get there they’ll have to get out of the ‘Group of Death’ with tournament favourites France and Germany as well as Hungary, who will be one of the only host nations to have full crowds from the start of the competition. Hungary are the first up on June 15th, before taking on 2014 World Cup winners Germany on the 19th and world champions France on the 23rd. It will surely be plain sailing from there if they can get out of that group, but that’s a big ‘if’. Hungary are no joke on opening day, particularly with a stadium full of people, which most players will be shell shocked by after a year of playing for empty grounds. Santos switched between two systems, a flowing 4-3-3 or a more rigid 4-4-2 in qualification for the tournament. In the 2020/21 Nations League, he settled on the 4-3-3, although he has made variations to good effect in some games. In this line up, Ronaldo is positioned as the central striker, with Joao Felix and Bernardo Silva on the flanks. He can, and generally does, use his strength to hold the ball up before bringing them into the game, allowing them to do more of the hard running while he can focus on what’s going on with the ball.
They’ll probably be looking to stretch their opponents on the wings with Cancelo and Guerreiro two very important players when it comes to launching attacks for the back four. Rui Patricio’s distribution makes it easy for Santos’ side to break away quickly, and they’ll definitely be utilising this in their attacks on the Hungarian defence day one. Stylistically, Portugal are a disaster match for Germany at the moment due to their fluidity, but the truly exciting game of this group is going to be the rematch of the Euro 2016 final when they play France.
Defender Jose Fonte says the team are confident, telling ‘Sqwaka’: “Most definitely. I feel that in terms of quality, in terms of players with ability and playing for top teams, this Portuguese squad is up there with the best.
“We feel confident and we certainly feel we can compete. We’re not favourites but we’re not scared of anyone. We can win any game against anybody. We just have to try to get that chemistry back when we can be together and work hard as a team,”
So, can Portugal win Euro 2020? When your team has even one player with the ability of a Cristiano Ronaldo on it, the answer is yes. He is a man who wins no matter the circumstances. He’s done it on a cold rainy night in Stoke, and he’s done it in the Champions League final at multiple points in his career. We can definitely see Portugal throwing the cat amongst the pigeons again and retaining their title.
Portugal Euro 2020 Squad:
Goalkeepers: Anthony Lopes (Lyon), Rui Patrício (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Rui Silva (Granada).
Defenders: João Cancelo (Manchester City), Nélson Semedo (Wolverhampton Wanderers), José Fonte (Lille), Pepe (Porto), Rúben Dias (Manchester City), Nuno Mendes (Sporting Lisbon), Raphael Guerreiro (Borussia Dortmund).
Midfielders: Danilo Pereira (Paris Saint-Germain), João Palhinha (Sporting Lisbon), Rúben Neves (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United), João Moutinho (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Renato Sanches (Lille), Sérgio Oliveira (Porto), William Carvalho (Real Betis).
Forwards: Pedro Gonçalves (Sporting Lisbon), André Silva (Eintracht Frankfurt), Bernardo Silva (Manchester City), Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus), Diogo Jota (Liverpool), Gonçalo Guedes (Valencia), João Félix (Atlético Madrid), Rafa Silva (Benfica).
