The Portuguese national team aren’t going to be the favourites to win Euro 2016, and that makes for a good chance for a nice value bet on them being the champions.
Portugal have never won a World Cup or a European Championship in its history. Players like Eusebio, Luís Figo, Deco, Rui Costa and others, have tried to lead Portugal to silverware, but have ultimately failed. Figo, Deco and Costa came closest to this when at Euro 2004, which incidentally was played in Portugal, they reached the final, only to have their hearts broken by a resilient Greek side managed and drilled by the legendary Otto Rehhagel.
Now, at Euro 2016, Cristiano Ronaldo will try to do what everyone else before him failed to do, and that is to lead his country to their first major trophy in their talent rich history.
That won’t be an easy task, but when you think about it, nothing really is. Except for visiting online casinos of course, which is something that everyone can do. In fact, learning how to get free spins at mobile casinos, finding the best casino bonuses, and playing for real money are the easiest things in the world, even for novices at online casinos.
Cristiano however, won’t have the luxury of spending time in top notch online casinos such as this one, and instead will have to prepare himself and the team that he captains for the rigors of the European Championship.
Three key factors
But how will Portugal fare in this summers’ tournament, and do they have a realistic chance of winning the much coveted trophy? The answer to this question will very much depend on three factors which we will try to analyse in this betting preview.
First of all, how Fernando Santos will approach games, and whether his team will be able to work as a unit and direct their obvious talent towards one common goal. Coaches play a major role in every team’s success and Portugal’s coach will be no different.
Fernando Santos is an underappreciated tactician and motivator, and this was obvious from his tenure with the Greek national team which was part of both the last World Cup and the last European Championship. In those tournaments the Greeks reached the knockout stages where they were eliminated at the first hurdle.
Nevertheless, this was a huge achievement, and something the Greek Football Federation didn’t appreciate enough, since after they fired Santos, the team completely fell apart and finished the qualifiers for Euro 2016 bottom of their group with only six points. More notably they lost their two matches against the Faroe Islands, an embarrassment of epic proportions.
Another important factor in determining Portugal’s success is whether Ronaldo will be willing to subdue his ego and put the team first. Every title winning country has had a superstar player willing to do the dirty work when necessary, and sacrifice his personal statistics for the benefit of the team. Spain had Xavi, Iniesta and Torres, France had Zidane, Brazil had Ronaldo and Rivaldo, Germany had Ozil and so on.
In Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese have the superstar and leader of men who needs to adapt his game so that it benefits the team. A lot of people will immediately dismiss the idea of Cristiano putting his ego aside for the benefit of the team, but they forget to factor in Ronaldo’s age in the whole situation.
The three-time Ballon d’Or winner is 31 and realistically this and maybe the next World Cup are the last chance saloons for a shot at the two biggest trophies that he is missing. The fact that he is in the fourth decade of his life also indicates that he should be a much more mature player. This should result in the player realising that subjugating himself for the better of the team is no longer an option, but is the only way.
The importance of luck
The last factor, the one which all champions possess, and incidentally the one which is the most difficult to obtain is luck. Greece had luck in spades in 2004, Germany got a lucky break when they scored in extra time against Argentina in the last World Cup, and had it not been for Zidane’s infamous head-butt on Matterazzi, France might have won the World Cup in 2006 instead of Italy.
And even though one can never guess whether a team will be fortunate or not, if we take a look at Portugal’s qualifying group for the Euros and their group in France, one thing is obvious, they have been extremely fortunate.
In the qualifiers, they benefited from the regional disputes between Serbia and Albania, and cruised in their group with just one loss in eight games. They were also very fortunate with the draw for the tournament, and were drawn in one of the easiest groups, together with Hungary, Austria and Iceland.
So, what’s the final verdict? Well, Portugal will most likely qualify for the knock out stages without any problems, and the fact that they are in an easy group should mean that they will also be able to conserve their energy for the latter stages of the competition.
Once they are in the elimination rounds, anything can happen. Fernando Santos will probably set them up to keep their goal intact, and this has proven the right formula for big tournaments so far. And should they reach the semi-finals or the final that will be the chance for Ronaldo to show to the world that he has added another aspect to his game and to finally lead his team to unexpected glory.
All in all, Euro 2016 will be the stage for a generation of Portuguese footballers who have played together for quite some time, led by a good tactician, and an inspired captain, to finally show, just like Spain did ten years ago, that all dry runs come to an end sooner or later.
Portugal to win Euro 2016 - 16/1 (Bet365)
