Portuguese Football in English
Winners of Euro 2016, despite the injured Cristiano Ronaldo sitting on the side-lines for most of the final against France, Portugal’s delegation this time round is actually more well-furnished in terms of star quality and depth throughout the team.
Although several of the title-winning players remain in the Seleção setup, the majority of the Portuguese squad is made up of bright new members who have excelled for their club sides all around Europe.
The sporting highlight of the summer, Euro2020, is less than four weeks away. The tournament was postponed a year due to the worldwide pandemic and will now run from 12 June to 12 July. The event will retain its name even though it is now being played a year later than was initially planned.
Even as reigning champions, most pundits consider Portugal as an outsider. The talking heads on TV seem to have more faith in the likes of England, France, Belgium, Spain and Germany.
Wolverhampton Wanderers have confirmed earlier reports from Portugal that Pedro Neto has suffered a serious knee injury which will keep him out for the rest of the season.
According to Portuguese outlet Jornal de Notícias, Neto’s knee problem will see him miss six months of action and therefore rule him out of this summer’s European Championships. While Wolves have not confirmed the length the winger is expected to be on the sidelines, the club stated Neto will not play again this season due to the injury suffered to his knee cap.
Portugal beat Switzerland 3-0 at Stadion Stožice to cruise into the U21 European Championship quarter-finals. The victory made it three consecutive victories, the Esperanças winning Group D without conceding a goal.
Rui Jorge’s side completely outclassed the Swiss in Ljubljana, Diogo Queirós opening the scoring before second half goals to Trincão & Francisco Conceição. PortuGOAL’s Matthew Marshall breaks down the match and Portugal’s successful group stage campaign.
Luxembourg 1-3 PortugalThe Seleção were made to work hard tonight against an organized and resilient Luxembourg in Group A of qualification for World Cup 2022 at the Stade Josy Barthel.
Once again, it was a case of superhuman efforts from the opposition keeper combined with bad finishing which prevented a more egregious scoreline, and Portugal found their way through adversity after going 1-0 down in the first half to snatch all three points and move top of Group A on goal differential.
Cristiano Ronaldo added to his record tally while João Palhinha scored his first ever goal for Portugal.
