Living on the west coast of the US I don't get much of a chance to listen to anyone discussing Portuguese futball and the national team especially. It was good to listen to your podcast today as I wait nervously for tomorrows game.

I think Portugal has a chance to win this one 2-1 but it will be a tough task! It is Spain after all. They will most likely control possession most of the game. We can not afford to miss chances like we did in the last game.

Forca Portugal!!!

Perhaps PortuGoal prefers to keep it professional with the comments in the podcast but truth of the matter is I don't see Spain winning without help from the referee.

As Andre/UK pointed out.. Spain's short passing style may play into our advantage because our aerial weakness will be rarely exposed.

Their defence is extremely vulnerable. CR7 and Nani would terrorize the fullbacks Arbeloa and Alba who also like to push forward and will be caught out if Portugal counter-attack.

I'll say it again since someone got it twisted in the other article. Based on CURRENT form (not because Spain are the defending world and euro cup champions *cough cheaters*) I'd tip Portugal to win this match.

But I do respect Spain's ability... (to dive, cheat, and injure ronaldo) and the referee to influence the match so it's 50-50.

When a team defends like Czech did, it’s hard to get a large score margin but we did dominate and we are showing our quality in all of our matches. I agree we continue to start matches way too negatively and in all of our games so far we have been poor starters.

You guys were spot on that Ronaldo is a great player and doesn’t need to do anything else to prove his quality. However you are also right that the reason why so many people attack him is due to his attitude. This is why there are so many haters on him all the time. Unlike the NBA and a few other sports where one player can be cocky and carry a team, soccer is 11 people. One good player can still be useless with 10 duds. It just seems disrespectful how he yells at other players on our team and almost acts like that the game is about him and not the country.

As for the striker role, we know it will be the same line-up but with Hugo upfront. If nothing is happening by the 60th min we will see Nelson on. Ronaldo was tried as a striker under QC and it was his worst 2 years ever with the country and part of the reason why people now talk as if Ronaldo does nothing for the national team.

The critical thing for me is how Moutinho, Velso, and Meireles perform. Spain is extremely strong at controlling the mid-filed. These 3 could be what breaks Spain down. If they can keep good pressure and provide quality passes/shots, Spain could find itself defending most of the team and not being able to make a good attack.

Forca Portugal!!!

Hey everyone, so I know how everyone is getting all excited for the match tomorrow, but I just wanted to point something out from a positive perspective. When we played Spain in the World Cup 2010 quarterfinals, we were coached very differently by a coach whom had a philosophy different than Bento. The team now is also more in sync than it was with Queiroz in 2010, examples consisting of Deco being benched, Nani being suspended for a "injury"; rumor had it he got tested for a controlled substance thats why Quieroz flipped his lid at the Federation during that "raid" at the training camp, and press, and the defensive mindframe throughout the tourney, which destroyed our typical personality of a team, which is a fast, counterattack,, creative fuetbol team.
Now take Bento, right when he came in, he changed everything. He changed it back to what we are used to from the Seleccao, mixture of attack,passes, and defend. Of course we lost Carvalho and Bosingwa, but look what they did for there clubs now?, nothing. I didnt mind seeing Carvalho go because, lets face it, he was getting old and Bosingwa is...ehh..Joao Perreria looks like a player 10x better than Unibrow. Then came the friendly vs Spain in November, look what happened?. Our counterattacks vs them were awesome, I think 3 of the goals in that 4-0 romp were from counterattacks. Bento has this team on a all time high right now from not only incredible performance from C Ronaldo, but from the whole squad. I think this team has accepted Ronaldo as their leader and hes showing it through this fantastic run.
Alot of press is having Spain win this closely, but as a Portuguese, I feel our time now has come, I have faith and belief we can win not only vs spain but win the whole darn thing!. Let us have faith, compassion, loyality, and heart into these final games and continue to root for the Seleccao no matter what the outcome is.
Forca Sempre Portugal!!!!

We have to remain humble and focused and NOT over-confident as some of the comments and posts have been here...and we have a great chance. Let's not kid ourselves here, Spain are the favourites for this match, as they are against team in this tournament...they are world and euro champions and have a team that have been playing together for years, and probably the most balanced team with the least flaws in the whole tournament...I would make them 60-40 favourites to win tomorrow.


That said, I reckon a 40% chance for us is more than enough to realistically win, and we can definitely do it if every player plays to their maximum. I'm sure Bento will keep the players focused and realistic and get them to play to their strengths. Clearly we have to repeat the very same tactics we played in that 4-0 friendly win. High pressing all over the pitch and constant harassment of their midfielders to make sure they don't dictate the tempo with their tiki-taka. If you can stop Spain quickly settling into their tiki-taka they can be vulnerable, and we can be able to break with speed and directness from the wide areas. If you look at this tournament so far, the Italians managed to do it and got a good result against them, while the French sat back and let them dictate the tempo and got comfortably beaten.

What I'm also optimistic is about is that, I feel our biggest weakness is defending crosses and headers and set-pieces. This is an approach the Spanish rarely make (even though they did score this way against France)...and even corners they usually take short. So they will be attacking us mainly through the middle, and thus far Pepe, Alves and Veloso have been able to snuff out most of the danger from open play through the middle. Let's hope it continues...

In terms of team selection for the match, I see a lot of posters have been agreeing recently with something I have thought about for a whille now and would love to see....Varela played in an attacking trio with CR7 and Nani. With CR7 and Varela taking turns as winger/central striker throughout the course of the match. This would be a fluid and ultra-pacey attack which could also confuse the opposition defence. I doubt it will happen tomorrow, and Bento will likely go with Almeida...but it's an attack I'd like to see tried out in the future. It'll surely be Almeida tomorrow night, and as many have pointed out he's slow and quite wasteful with his finishing. But he had a decent game against Spain at the World Cup, and of course scored against them in the friendly win...he also offers us an aerial threat from set-pieces, which could be important in a tight match.

So I repeat again, Spain are the slight faves tomorrow night, 60 to 40, because they have a stronger all round team with more experience and less flaws. But we'll have the best player on the pitch tomorrow, and the best player at the tournament, who can be unplayable when he's at his best. We've also already proved that we know how to beat Spain, and we're all hoping we can prove it again tomorrow. FORCA SEMPRE!!!!