I’m Still shocked at how many people Put Portugal so low here. Only France is objectively better. Look at their players and where they play and the depth. It’s truly outstanding. They are as stacked as Spain 2010 or Brazil 2002 France Is just something else but they have the champions curse and they are hit or miss often
You don’t know what you are taking about. Age criteria? This since the 2000s players are playing longer and longer and this is a winter world Cup which benefits older players. They call me doctor football for a reason.
I mean I published some stats here a couple of days ago that your typical World Cup winner in recent times is a nation with an average age below 27.00. Italy 2006 has been the only outlier in that regard since 1998.
Small Sample size and look at Ronaldo and Pepe they are beasts. Portugal has youth too like Nuno mendes who is the greatest left back in the world alongside the canadien Alphonso Davies. I have a medical degree and scout in my spare time
Yet I hear even Portugese people complain that they don't have a pattern of play. I didn't watch yesterday's game but it's also my impression.
I gave the odds for the 6 so-called heavy weights (Brazil, France, Argentina, England, Spain and Germany) winning the title as around 51% but if I changed the 6 to Brazil, France, Argentina, Holland, Portugal and Uruguay instead, the latter's collective odds to lift the trophy would improve and jump to around 60% IMO. If the top 6 were expanded to the top 9 to include all of these teams (Brazil, France, Argentina, Holland, Portugal, Uruguay, England, Spain and Germany), the odds that the winner emerge from among the top 9 would be around 85% IMO.
Where does this 8-0 come from? It certainly doesn't include the last World Cup, when Argentina had two losses and a draw against UEFA.
Denmark, Uruguay, Netherlands, Portugal, Japan could have nice results. Mexico seems as mystery. Players are mostly in Mexican league. Good or bad? Is their league strong as La Liga? Are better teams loosing or playing draws intentionally in UEFA Nations League? Unusual that France lost against Denmark, defeat of Croatia against Austria, high defeat of Belgium, Spanish 2-2 against Czechs, England lost against Hungary. Rabiot, Modric, Courtois on the bench... Betting trickery? Portugal, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Czech care about their A League status.
Lol, it includes the phenomenal run of Scaloni team, since 2019 until now: 33 games unbeaten, Copa America win, finalissima win, impeccable qualys, all these while playing beautiful futbol. This is what some people here were saying, but the answer was we havent play against europeans in this run, so it didnt count. We played europeans now and scored 8 goals and conceded 0 (in 2 games)
Okay we get it, the Euro snobs hurt your feelings and you're out to prove a point. When you have to include Estonia to make a point about it being 8-0 it comes across as kinda sad and also very pointless. I mean it's Estonia, some teams might have scored all 8 in just that 1 game. Be proud of the win against Italy, but being happy you did what several other teams could have done to Estonia, I mean come on man.
Yeah, I guess its going to be a weird Nations League campaign because of the timing of most of the matches. Plus you have 3 teams engaged in WC qualifying who will essentially ignore their NL matches. UEFA also uses this competition to rank their members and determine the pots for the Euro qualifying draw. I expect to see some powerhouses in pot 2 and some smaller teams in higher pots than you would normally expect them. For instance, one can already see that teams like Finland and Iceland could easily wind-up in the same pot as Italy, France and/or England.
Sorry Mr Doctor, I was agreeing with most of what you were saying but have you really compared this current Portuguese team with Brazil 2002? This PT team is solid and underrated but extremely far from Brazil 2002. Also, a team that starts Pepe, who will be a few months away from his 40th birthday in the WC, does not have that stacked of a squad. France, England and Brazil have way more depth. And Argentina’s starting eleven is scary. Hence Portugal being in the 2nd tier of the top contenders.
I think it may have something to do with the fact that Portugal always have great talent and always seem to underperform at the World Cup. Outside of their run to the semis in 2006, they've never even made a quarterfinal. In 2020 & 2014 they didn't make it out of the group stage, and in 2010 & 2018 they lost in the R16.
All of what you say is true but ultimately more in the nature of trivia than something relevant that one can build a cogent argument around.
Have you seen Pepe play? He is still very good and they also have Ruben Dias who starts for Manchester city and Danilo from PSG. Portugal has usually been a defensively solid team. I am aware Brazilians usually aren’t fond of Portugal and hate them from what I understand, but if I was a Brazil fan I would want to avoid a potential round of 16 clash against Portugal. I don’t think argentina eleven is better. Portugal is much better. Just look at where their players play and their roles. The only team that is better is France if you look at things objectively.
The current team is much stronger than previous teams including 2006. Portugal reached 1966 semis and third place which you omitted . But yes Portugal isn’t a historical superpower like Brazil Germany Italy etc but they’ve been strong in recent times. Rather then that being used as a stick to beat them with, I prefer to see it as complimentary. After all they only have 10 million population.
Also I am a hungary fan for the record. I look at football neutrally and I consider myself a student of the game.
In my opinion a country can only be considered a superpower in soccer if they through time regulary make it into the semi finals of the WC and/or EURO's. Every country can make it once or twice into it, but that can be the result of luck or a fluke alignment of the stars giving a talented generation, or a combo of both. Superpowers do it as a habit.
People don't rate Portugal high because this last match is the best they have played in years. It's simple as that. Everyone is aware of their individual quality but it doesn't matter if you play like crap. If they can keep the level of last game then maybe the general opinion on them will start to swing.
Portugal has started playing closer to its potential recently. Their high point was their game against the Swiss but they were impressive enough against Turkey in the playoffs as well. Of course, for all the teams including Portugal, its best they hit their peak form in November/December in Qatar and not much earlier. It is important to remember that besides many other things, the form of teams (like players) is hardly constant. It has a certain degree of fluctuation although the floor and ceiling for the best should ordinarily be higher than for other teams/players.
As a die hard fan of Portugal I really can't blame anyone for not picking them as a favorite. I mean there is really no reason to. For about 5 years they have been extremely, and I mean extremely underwhelming. I will say however that I still have a cautious optimism because only maybe 4 or 5 teams in the world can match their quality player for player. And after so many years there has been some positive signs that it might be changing. Still, I need to see much more consistency before my confidence increases, but maybe just maybe the timing is coming together at a perfect moment.