Euro 2020 finished this summer, and what a competition it was. Okay, Portugal did not go as far as they would have liked, but they had the hardest group with Hungary, Germany, and France and then they had to play Belgium in the Round of 16.
Usually, we would have to wait two whole years for the next major international tournament, but as Euro 2020 was delayed a year due to the pandemic, we just have a little over a year to wait for the FIFA 2022 World Cup. The prize every international team wants to win. In this article, we are going to take a look at Portugal’s odds to win the most prestigious competition in football.
European World Cup Qualifiers
Teams obviously have to earn the right to compete at the World Cup, and come the middle of November, we will know most of the European teams that have qualified for the competition. The team that finishes first in their group gets automatic qualification for the World Cup, while those teams that are runners-up have to compete in playoffs for the right to play at the biggest international football tournament in the world.
Portugal were drawn in Group A with Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Republic of Ireland, and Serbia. At the time of writing, the Seleção sit second in the table with 16 points thanks to five wins and a draw, but just one point behind leaders Serbia with a game in hand. They play their final qualification matches later this week against Ireland and Serbia, that last group game likely to be winner takes all at the Estádio da Luz, in Lisbon.
Portugal has their talismanic Cristiano Ronaldo to thank for the fact they still have their fate in their own hands. In the game against Ireland, Portugal were losing 1-0 with 89 minutes on the clock, and he popped up with an equalizing goal in the 90th minute and the winner in the 96th minute. This would have been a bittersweet pill for the Irish fans to swallow, as many of them, given the form their team is in, would have used the best betting sites that can be found at betinireland.ie to bet on Portugal to win. If they did so with just ten minutes or so left of normal time, they would at least have been able to get a fair number of pints after the match. Obviously, they would have preferred that their team caused a big upset, but it just was not to be.
Speaking about bookmakers, the majority of them have Portugal as clear favourites to top their group and make it through to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar as automatic qualifiers. For example, at Bet365, if you were to place €100 on Portugal to win the group, you would only make a €10 profit since they have odds of just 1.10 to finish first.
Portugal's Chances at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar
So, let us say that the bookmakers are 100% correct and Portugal do enough to top their group and qualify automatically for the World Cup next year. What are their odds of going on to lift the trophy? Well, in the table below, you can see what odds some of the best bookmakers in the world are giving for Portugal to be champions next year.
|
|
Bet365 |
William Hill |
888sport |
Unibet |
Betway |
|
Portugal |
15/1 |
15/1 |
15/1 |
13/1 |
15/1 |
If you go on an oddschecker website, you will see that the majority of all the most popular bookies have eight teams that they believe have a better chance of lifting the trophy than Portugal. Below are the odds that Bet365 are giving for these eight teams to win the tournament:
Brazil – 5/1
France – 5/1
England – 6/1
Spain – 8/1
Italy – 9/1
Argentina – 11/1
Germany – 11/1
Belgium – 11/1
So, after Belgium there is a big increase in odds to 15/1, which means that bookmakers and punters feel that there is a big gap between these eight and the rest of the pack. We believe that this is a pretty fair assessment, although with the way that Germany have been playing lately, we probably would not have them at odds of 11/1 to win. Although, they usually play well at big tournaments, especially the World Cup, so this probably has something to do with those odds.
Would we put our own money on Portugal to win the World Cup? Well, while we would absolutely love to see one of the best players the game has ever seen lift the World Cup trophy, it is something that we just do not see happening. Depending on the group that Portugal gets drawn into (let us hope that it is not another Group of Death), we feel that the semi-final stage is probably the best that they can hope for.
This is just our opinion though, and we have no doubt that there will be plenty of Portugal fans who will disagree with us and are confident about their side’s chances of winning their first World Cup and will be putting money on them to do just that. Their coach, Fernando Santos, does have some serious young talent at his disposal, that is for sure. For example, there is the likes of João Félix, Rúben Dias, João Cancelo, Rúben Neves, Diogo Jota, Renato Sanches, Rafael Leão and Francisco Trincão. Not only do these players have the zest of youth behind them, but they all regularly play for some of the best teams in Europe such as Manchester City, Atletico Madrid, and AC Milan.
Then, they have the likes of Bruno Fernandes, Bernado Silva, Ronaldo, Pepe, Moutinho, and Rui Patrício to give them the international experience that they will need to do well on the big stage. If they all play to their potential, then they could shock the world and lift the World Cup next winter.
