Portuguese Football in English
Seleção coach Roberto Martínez continues to share his thoughts on multiple media outlets as excitement builds ahead of the 2024 European Championship in Germany in the summer.
In an interview with Portuguese news agency Lusa, Martínez spoke about Portugal’s chances at the tournament and dropped further hints about his likely squad selection. PortuGOAL rounds up the main quotes.
Portugal coach Roberto Martínez was the guest of honour on Canal 11 show “Total Football” last night.
The amiable Spaniard, speaking perfect Portuguese, did not duck any question thrown his way.
He reinforced his optimism for the Seleção ahead of Euro 2024, reserved special praise for young stars João Neves and Diogo Costa, and explained why Cristiano Ronaldo remains a key component of the team.
PortuGOAL rounds up the main quotes.
Roberto Martínez often doesn’t get the plaudits he deserves as a manager, and that could be down to the fact that he has never won any major trophies.
However, the former Belgium boss has been hugely influential in the game, with the likes of Graham Potter having studied his methods for possession-based football.
Since taking over as Portugal manager in 2023, Martínez has enjoyed one of the best spells of his career. The Seleção have had the best qualifying campaign in their history in the lead-up to Euro 2024, and there has clearly been a tactical evolution under the new coach.
This begs the question, why aren’t Portugal more heavily favoured to win the competition?
The draw for the 2024 European Championship has taken place in Hamburg and Portugal cannot complain of bad luck.
The Seleção were placed in Group F (the same as when Portugal won the tournament in 2016) alongside the Czech Republic, Turkey and the winner of the playoff path involving Georgia, Greece, Kazakhstan and Luxembourg.
Portugal’s full group stage schedule is as follows:
The rest of the draw threw up an authentic “Group of Death”, Group B, which consists of Spain, Croatia, Italy and Albania.
The Seleção finished an unusually smooth Euro 2024 qualification campaign with two routine wins over Liechtenstein and Iceland to make it ten straight victories under Spanish coach Roberto Martínez.
It is the first time Portugal have won every one of their matches in a qualifying campaign for a major tournament, and the swagger shown in many of the goal-laden victories has re-enthused the Seleção fan base after things had gone stale under Fernando Santos.
In addition to new tactical approaches that appear to have unlocked Portugal’s offensive firepower, a major theme of the Martínez era has been the emergence of Bruno Fernandes as the team’s chief orchestrator.
