Portugal are making few friends at Euro 2016.
Thousands of media outlets all over the world need little encouragement to publish disparaging articles about Seleção captain Cristiano Ronaldo, thus in the first week of Euro 2016 we were treated to an all-too-familiar character assassination of the Real Madrid star after his frustration-driven remarks in the immediate aftermath of Portugal’s draw against Iceland.
The end of the group stage and the knockout phase has brought a slew of less-then-complimentary assessments of Portugal’s performance at the tournament, with many analysts pointing to the paucity of attacking football and the fact the team has reached the semi-final without winning a game in 90 minutes.
For Portugal coach Fernando Santos and his players, the negative press is of little consequence. “I prefer to play ugly and be here, rather than play pretty football and be at home,” said Santos on the weekend, the exact same phrase repeated by midfielder Danilo Pereira at yesterday’s press conference.
Us against the world
You could argue that the criticism thrown Portugal’s way is actually helping unite the squad. Fernando Santos is too principled and honest a coach and man to enter into manipulative games with the press for his team’s gain, in classic Alex Ferguson or José Mourinho style. Yet the “us against the world” mentality that the two aforementioned managers were/are so adept at exploiting has been created of its own accord. It may even have made the difference by means of the extra ounce of determination each Portugal player managed to wring out of his exhausted body in two excruciatingly tight encounters against Croatia and Poland.
As for the nation’s fans, after witnessing years of buccaneering and easy-on-the-eye football count for zero in terms of silverware, nobody in Portugal will complain if the side fail to win a single match in France, should Cristiano Ronaldo hold aloft that trophy at the Stade France next Sunday evening. Playing brilliant football that ends in glorious/unlucky failure has been the common theme in Portugal’s football history since the turn of the millennium.
At Euro 2000, a Luís Figo and Rui Costa inspired Portugal (still many people’s choice as the best ever Portugal side), played outstanding football on their way to semi-final heartbreak against eventual winners France after the infamous Abel Xavier handball in the dying moments of extra time allowed Zinedine Zidane to score the golden goal penalty.
Four years later Portugal came even closer as host nation. A shock opening day defeat to Greece meant every game from then onwards was “kill or be killed” as coach Luiz Felipe Scolari was fond of saying. With the likes of Deco, Maniche, Figo and a teenage Ronaldo firing on all cylinders, Russia, Spain, England and the Netherlands were blown away, only for more anguish in the final as Greece beat Portugal for a second time – 12 years ago today.
France nemesis
At the 2006 World Cup Portugal reached the semi-finals, were voted the competition’s most entertaining team by global viewers through the FIFA website, only to fall with the end in sight once again, as France scraped past the Seleção thanks to another Zidane penalty.
Even in the leaner years when Portugal’s talent well ran somewhat dry there were moments to savour. At Euro 2008, the confident manner in which Turkey and the Czech Republic were dispatched raised hopes before the campaign was derailed by the untimely disclosure that Scolari would be leaving the team to take over at Chelsea. In 2010 Carlos Queiroz’s ultra-defensive tactics could not prevent one memorable match, as North Korea were taken to the cleaners 7-0.
And four years ago at Euro 2012, an unfancied Portugal, with a squad far less talented than the current vintage, reached the semi-finals in a thrilling run, the helter-skelter 3-2 win against Denmark followed by the Ronaldo-inspired dismantling of the Netherlands particularly adrenalin-inducing occasions. And Portugal came as close as any other nation to shattering Spain’s 6-year domination of world football; possibly just a better Raul Meireles pass to Ronaldo away from knocking out their Iberian neighbours and eventual winners.
These are just a few highlights plucked from 16 years of fantastic memories Seleção fans can look back on.
Losers quickly forgotten
“Do Portugal fans, like England fans, have an inquest whenever they fall at the quarter-final stage? I can’t remember Portugal getting much further in tournaments,” I was asked by a radio host last week. Resisting the temptation to set the record straight (on Wednesday Portugal play their 5th semi-final in the 9 European Championships and World Cups played this century), I pondered what had led to the question. I concluded there was no malice or wanton ignorance in it. Unless you are a fan of the nation in question, you simply do not remember beaten finalists, let alone beaten semi-finalists.
So count me in on the Fernando Santos mantra. Win ugly if that’s the only way to win. Just win.
By Tom Kundert
