With the 2024 UEFA European Football Championship starting shortly, fans are beginning to wonder whether the Portuguese squad has a chance of lifting the trophy. The final will be played at the Olympiastadion in Berlin on July 14, but what are the odds of Portugal being there?
The current favourites
A look at the odds reveals that England, France, and Germany are all quite close together at the top of the latest betting options. Portugal is in fourth place on many sportsbooks, just ahead of Spain, Italy and the Netherlands are next on the list, with Slovakia, Albania, and Georgia as the biggest outsiders. The odds are around +800 on Portugal winning the tournament, meaning that you would win $80 if you bet $10, and get it right.
To see how good a bet this is, we can compare it to England, which would give you a $27.50 profit at their current odds of +275. Compare it to other ways of gambling and you’ll see, for example, that getting a winning blackjack hand typically pays a Compare it to other ways of gambling at casinos not under Gamstop and you’ll see, for example, that getting a winning blackjack hand typically pays at even money unless you get 21 with your first two cards, so bet $10 and you get your money back plus $10. To see the roulette odds, we can see how to play Red Door Roulette. This version has random multipliers, so a bet on a single number can pay between 19 and 3999:1. Even money bets pay at 1:1, just like winning a game of blackjack.
This quick comparison reveals that betting on Portugal to win Euro 2024 gives you fairly long odds, suggesting that the sportsbooks don’t rate their chances all that highly. On the positive side, this could make it an attractive bet to someone who feels that the team can go all the way in Germany and win the tournament. The key question for many analysts is whether Cristiano Ronaldo can inspire the national team to one final triumph. While his influence has been waning on the international stage, Ronaldo just finished the season with a new record of 35 goals in the Saudi Pro League.
Portugal’s history at major tournaments
To get an idea of how confident the Portuguese team might be, we need to take a look at their history in major tournaments. In World Cups, their best result remains the third place they claimed in their first appearance, which came in 1966. The World Cup in 2022 ended in disappointment as the Portuguese lost 1-0 to Morocco at the quarter-final stage, leading to Fernando Santos losing his job as the national coach.
Yet, Santos had led the team to its first major titles when then won Euro 2016 and the Nations League in 2019. That 2016 triumph was particularly important, as Portugal beat the host nation France in the final after extra-time. The analysis carried out by FIFA suggests that new coach Roberto Martínez has had a positive start to his time in charge, winning all ten of their games last year. While the Spanish coach hasn’t made massive changes to their starting lineup from the last World Cup, a series of intelligent tactical tweaks have helped grow the belief that 2024 could be their year.
Portugal has a chance to win the trophy at Euro 2024 but the disappointing end to the last World Cup means that for the moment they’re rightly placed behind some of the continent’s biggest names in the odds.
