Nickname: Seleccao das Quinas
Manager: Carlos Queiroz
Previous World Cup appearances: Four
Best finish: Third place (1966)
Key players:
Cristiano Ronaldo
Deco
Simao
Portugal made a meal of booking their place in South Africa, before finally coming through a play-off to ensure that the world’s greatest sporting event will be graced by the 2008 FIFA World Player of the Year.
Cristiano Ronaldo and team-mates made a disastrous start to their qualifying group, wining just one of their first five games. But a late rally saw them pip Sweden to second in the group by a single point, setting up a play-off clash with Bosnia-Herzegovina, which they won 2-0 on aggregate.
The uncertain opening to their campaign owed much to a change at the top, former Manchester United assistant Carlos Queiroz taking over as coach from Luiz Felipe Scolari, who had been in the job for six years.
Queiroz is actually in his second stint in charge of the team, having previously held the role between 1991 and 1993, during which time he failed to guide them to either Euro ’92 or the 1994 World Cup.
In fact, Portugal have a chequered history when it comes to World Cup participation: surprisingly for a country that has produced so many great stars, they have managed to qualify only five times in 18 attempts.
When they get there, however, the Portuguese have generally been a threat: Eusebio inspired them to third place in 1966, while they also reached the semi-finals last time out in Germany.
Like England, the Portuguese suffered for a number of years under the weight of expectation roused by the existence of a so-called ‘golden generation’ of players, including Rui Costa, Joao Pinto and Vitor Baia.
The last of this crop of stars, Luis Figo, retired in 2006, since when the team has increasingly revolved around Ronaldo, who Queiroz made captain in 2008.
However, the 24-year-old has often struggled to reproduce his stunning club form at international level. While he has averaged a goal every other game for Manchester United and Real Madrid in recent years, his strike rate for Portugal is less than one in three.
This is symptomatic of Portugal’s biggest problem – a lack of firepower. Although they have a host of attacking options in the form of Simao, Nani, Deco and Joao Moutinho, they have struggled to find a cutting edge since the retirement of record goalscorer Pauleta in 2006.
A measure of their desperation was Queiroz’s haste in calling up the Brazilian-born striker Liedson as soon as the 31-year-old’s controversial naturalisation as a Portuguese citizen was complete, much to the fury of the domestic players’ union.
The Sporting Lisbon striker duly delivered with two important goals in the team’s final qualifying matches, helping to secure their path to the finals.
If Liedson helps Portugal to succeed in South Africa, then you can bet that the grumbles over his nationality will swiftly be forgotten.
