Well the worst (or best depending how you look at it?) has happened - we are in the same path as Italy, which means if both Portugal and Italy beat their semi-final opponents they will meet in the final playoff. Either Portugal or Italy are staying home this world cup. First we have to beat Turkey, then we face the winner of Italy vs. North Macedonia - I guess the good thing is we play at home in the final.... not that playing at home matters much as Serbia showed. Path A Scotland v Ukraine Wales v Austria (semi-final winner at home in the final) Path B Russia v Poland (semi-final winner at home in the final) Sweden v Czech Republic Path C Italy v North Macedonia Portugal v Turkey (semi-final winner at home in the final)
well ******** uefa, this was rigged. So Italy or Portugal will be out but some weak ass asian team will make it over.
Fernando Santos after Serbia: "Don't worry we will be at the world cup" Even with both games at home I have no confidence
Wow, I was so wrong, I was so sure this draw would be rigged in a way to make it as favourable as possible for Portugal, or Italy for that matter, to progress...Not only does Portugal have to potentially face Italy with a world cup berth on the line ,they have to first secure passage past a tough Turkish side. Geez, did not see this coming at all.
Turkey is a funny team. They are very on or very off. If they are on , they are big time trouble for sure
Turkey are traditionally a very hit or miss team. They're a country with a big population of around 83 million people, and benefit from having children of their diaspora be eligible in representing them. And they have some crazy passionate fans over there who are obsessed with the sport. However, some of their issues seem to be player discipline and development to reach high levels consistently, along with just not being a very tactically innovative team. They did hire Stefan Kuntz to be the coach of their NT though. He's been the coach of the German U21 squad for a few years and also lead them to a U21 Euro win this past summer.
Sad that cr7 might be done but maybe a loss is needed to get the renewal going. I would get Leo Jardim to coach the new Portugal.
It's apparent they don't want us there. Make total sense not having that VAR system in place for the first game in Serbia, this was a warning sign.
I think so too. We will lose on penalties and The Turks (Who are very loudly present in opposing teams stadiums) will sing their victory song while CR7 cries on the pitch.
I don't think any of these games should be played at the Luz stadium. I don't believe in curses or anything but we have some horrible losses at the Luz.
Portugal did defeat the Ottomans back in these days though https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman–Portuguese_conflicts_(1586–1589)
Italian media is dreading the prospect of facing Portugal. If only they knew they have nothing to worry about
Yeah i know, i just think its pretty cool that The Turks have the Ottoman Empire song as the national teams victory song.
The one thing about Turks and Iranians is that they're very proud of their history. Most are generally cool with you say "Iranian" but they still prefer being called Persians.
Since we aren't getting a new coach, any chance that we can put Santos through coaching school in the next 4 months?
After the Euros the whole team just fell apart, we have no strikers. Not looking forward to Portugal but whatever, what a dumb system UEFA put in place, disgraceful.