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.
That England is seen as one of the main contenders can partly be explained by the fact that the semi-finals and final will be played at Wembley Stadium, in London.
However, the Seleção tend to thrive as underdogs and are likely more than happy to accept the role as tournament dark horse.
Group of Death
Portugal did not have much luck in the draw and were placed into a group with France, Germany and Hungary. Hungary away in Budapest is far from a pushover. Germany in Munich is a daunting task and then the Seleção will face the small matter of facing the World Champions. Although finishing third may be enough to make the knockout stages, navigating the group phase will be a stern test.
Even if Eder’s long-range winner in the final against France feels much like yesterday, the reality is that almost five years have passed since that glorious evening. Naturally there have been many changes to the Portugal team since the famous victory in Paris.
Cristiano Ronaldo has turned 36, but is still a world beater. He remains the obvious captain, an automatic starter, and one of the greatest players the world has ever seen.
Bruno Fernandes has been one of the best players in the Premier League after signing for Manchester United in January 2020, and has just been named the club’s Player of the Season for the second consecutive year.
Bernardo Silva, João Cancelo and Rúben Dias have all excelled at Manchester City and are highly valued by Pep Guardiola.
João Félix has been benched surprisingly much by Diego Simeone at Los Rojiblancos the last few weeks and is now linked with a potential move to Chelsea or Manchester City. Even if he has struggled to establish himself properly with the national team, he is a player of such quality that he can have a major impact in any match.
Players like João Félix and the 19-year-old Nuno Mendes ensures that there are plenty of young options available for Fernando Santos, who will announce his 26-player strong squad on Thursday 20 May.
The above-mentioned players are all shoe-ins for the Seleção squad, but Portugal fans are keenly anticipating tomorrow’s announcement as the final make-up of the group is far from consensual, in addition to the fact Santos is not averse to pulling off one or two surprises in his selections.
Fringe players in the running
Sporting’s Pedro Gonçalves has enjoyed a magnificent season but has never been called up to the senior national team. William Carvalho has been a stalwart and a major player for Portugal under Santos, but his place is at risk having endured a disappointing season at Real Betis. William did not feature in Portugal’s last set of internationals.
Nani has enjoyed a whirlwind start to the season for Orlando City and may be in contention, especially given the enlarged squads introduced for this summer’s competition.
Olympiacos duo Rúben Semedo and José Sá, AC Milan forward Rafael Leão and Barcelona winger Francisco Trincão may all feel they have a chance of making the cut after positive performances in 2020/21.
While the two left-backs are obvious picks in Raphaël Guerreiro and Nuno Mendes, the same cannot be said of the other side of the pitch, with Portugal’s embarrassment of riches at right-back no doubt giving Santos food for thought. The veteran coach will select two from João Cancelo, Nélson Semedo, Ricardo Pereira and Cédric Soares for this position.
Young stars in the making
It will also be interesting to learn which other young players will make the cut and earn selection to play for other countries participating in the European Championship.
An array of young Chelsea players, who could have important roles to play in the 29 May Champions League Final in Porto, are in the mix to earn selection. Players like Mason Mount, Reece James, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Tammy Abraham are in contention to be selected by England. Furthermore Kai Havertz is likely to play for Germany during Euro2020. Billy Gilmour is likely to be selected by Scotland, although fans in Portugal are perplexed by the apparent exclusion by the Scots of Farense captain Ryan Gauld, who has been magnificent throughout the past two years for the Algarve outfit.
Players like Germany’s Jamal Musiala and the French teenager Eduardo Camavinga have exceptional potential.
The tournament can simply not start soon enough, and the squad announcements this week will only further whet the appetite for the action to get underway.
