Portugal the dark side of football, everyone hates them there was a sigh of collective joy when Portugal was drawn with into the group of death with thugs like Bruno Alves, Pepe, and then you have ppl like CR7, coentrao, nani etc they arent a likeable squad add to that, anti-football tactics, and surrounding referees Just to make things clear : none of us think we will win. we arent English. We are just here to troll
I don't hate Portugal, not at all. Okay, their antics are sometimes annoying, but I had them as favourites winning the EC 2008. For such a small country Portugal has a very good team and I admire this effort. Of course I hope Germany to top the group, but I wouldn't mind if Portugal comes second.
I don't think many people would be very surprised. Recent performance and Fifa-ranking favor Germany and the Netherlands slightly, but don't forget that Portugal and Denmark are in the top 10 in the Fifa-rankings also. Any of them can win the group. Not sure if there has ever been a group in a Euro Cup or World Cup were all four teams were in the top 10 of the Fifa rankings. I look forward to great games.
You know most people don't take the Fifa ranking seriously right (especially because of the way the ranking is done)??? People consider Germany and Holland to be favourites because of what they've actually shown on the pitch on several occasions, not really because of their Fifa ranking.
nonetheless its still a valid point going from Fifa ranking it might very well be the 'best group' for ages, if not an outright record, both in Euro, Copa America and World Cups EDIT: actually ... just searched a bit around ... the strongest group as of yet (from what i can see) was euro 96, group c with 2nd, 3th, 5th and 10th (Germany, Russia, Italy and Czech) ... going from the most recent ranking this group is 2nd, 3th, 7th and 11th (Netherlands, Germany, Portugal and Denmark), and my napkin math suggest that both Denmark and Portugal is easily within reach of jumping a spot each
I think the FIFA-ranking is actually pretty good. Looking over it I don't see any major discrepancies, especially within the federations. I prefer it to the UEFA-ranking which completely ignores friendlies. The FIFA ranking at least gives a little impact to friendlies. The problem that I see is that inter-federation rankings are impossible to do, because the clubs from smaller federations only ever play against clubs from the other federations during the world cup (i.e. three to five games once every four years). I'm not talking about South-America here (which I think is generally comparable to UEFA in strength), but for instance, I believe that Mexico, the U.S., Australia and Ivory Coast would have a difficult time achieving their current ranking if they were in the UEFA, having to qualify and regularly play against European teams.
It wouldn't be that surprising, it's not like Portugal have a bad team. I would just be disgusted by that thug Pepe winning the Euro.
Portugal will win the Euro. You heard it here first Seriously though, I don't understand all the hate for our NT...
I think entering the search term 'cheating Portuguese' on YouTube will help you towards understanding it....
I found this video [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z27I5lZKVfY&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z27I5lZKVfY&feature=related[/ame]
I googled 'cheating Portuguese' and got 11 300 000 results. Then I googled 'cheating Dutch' and got 26 600 000 results.
The problem imo is that Portugal only have 1 world class player (CR7) and another very good player who can be world class at times (Nani), the rest of the team is average when you compare the players to that of Germany and Holland who are both in the same group as Portugal.
Portugal's defense is basically Real Madrid with Bruno Alves instead of Sergio Ramos (which I call an upgrade). Also Meireles is above average. Overall, yes, "only" 1 world class player but about 5-6 others who are above average. Tough group though so I would not be surprised if they get sent home early.