We’ve had an excellent response to the launch of our book on the history of the Seleção entitled The Thirteenth Chapter – from Eusébio to Ronaldo, Portugal’s 50-year journey from football minnows to European Champions.

Ten days are left to purchase the book at the discount price of £14 via our Kickstarter campaign page. The campaign also gives Seleção fans the opportunity to be part of a public letter of support to Fernando Santos and the Seleção.

Just two and a half months separate us from the start of the World Cup. Portugal’s friendly matches sparked much debate about the current state of the Seleção and who should make the plane to Russia. But what about Portugal’s Group B opponents?

With the proviso that two friendlies are not ideal material to draw definitive conclusions, PortuGOAL tasked football analyst Tiago Estêvão to examine what the internationals played this past week told us about Spain, Morocco and Iran.

It was not a World Cup preparatory exercise that Fernando Santos or the emigrant Portuguese fans in Switzerland were hoping for as the Seleção put in two sub-par performances against Egypt and the Netherlands.

It can be argued the poor displays were not necessarily a bad thing, with Santos himself, while accepting responsibility for the heavy defeat against the Oranje, saying: “there are always positives to take from games, even if it’s just a question of helping me make the final selection.”

Who furthered their chances of getting into Portugal’s World Cup squad and who didn’t? PortuGOAL runs the rule over how each individual performed and assesses the chances of each one of them being in the final 23-man list who will represent the Seleção in Russia.

In recent World Cups, the teams who have been seen as the favourites pre-tournament have not really changed much since 2010.

Brazil are always there. They are much like Real Madrid and the Champions League, there is always a belief that the canary shirted side will be there or thereabouts – the team and the competition just seem to be made for each other. If there is a World Cup on the horizon, Brazil just seem to raise their level.

Of course, in the last World Cup, they were walloped in the semi-final by eventual winners Germany. Nevertheless, a run to the last four was far better than the team who recently dominated international football, Spain, who suffered a meek group stage exit, but under former FC Porto coach Julen Lopetegui the Spaniards appear to have bounced back to prominence.