Featuring one of the most luxurious lineups in recent years, Portugal still beat North Macedonia in the final knockout round, despite stumbling all the way through qualifying and even being beaten by Serbia in a crucial scoring game.
advancement
Onto the intra-conference tournament.
Portugal's best performance in the World Cup was the top four in 2006 created by the golden generation of players of the generation of Rui Costa and Figo. Although C. Ronaldo led the team to the top of Europe in 16 years later, Portugal is always missing a World Cup title to endorse their two players.
This year, with a trio of stars from the old, the middle and the young, Portugal will still be one of the favorites to win the tournament.
However, with Uruguay, Ghana and South Korea among the top teams in Group H, Portugal will have an easy time of it, or will it be a bloodbath that will affect them as the top team in the Group of Death.
advancement
Post-trend.
After joining the team in '14, Santos and C. Ronaldo have already developed a strong spirit for Portugal.
Santos is still the coach who will lead the team to the championship, although he has not found the right system to integrate the team tactically, but with the rising ability of the players and the tactical center of gravity, C. Ronaldo, still in the lineup, Santos will still be the coach to lead the team to the championship! And he has shown the world that he has the power to do it, as he demonstrated long ago in '16.
From the past to the present, Portugal has never had so many top goalkeepers, even Anthony Lopez is just about to reach the height of Patrício. Even Anthony Lopez was just on the verge of reaching Patrício's height. I didn't realize that in just two years' time, there will be a lot of talents coming out of the mid-generation of Sá, to the new generation of the super talented Costa, Portugal will not be lack of talent in goalkeepers nowadays. And Patrício's long-established position could be challenged this year.
The luxury of goalkeeper selection has never been a tougher choice for Portugal. Patrício still has a stable Patrício in this year's outstanding performance in Rome is still the team's stable starting goalkeeper, even if already 34 years old, but in the face of close-range saves will still be quite amazing performance, although the solution to the problem of passes still has not been improved, but with teammates of the long term cooperation resulting in tacit understanding, will still be the biggest reason Santos consider letting him start.
Not to be outdone by his predecessors, the emergence of young goalkeeper Diogo Costa at the age of 22 is definitely an important factor in the Portuguese goalkeeper's difficult choice. After improving on his poor save percentage from last season, Diogo Costa has put his practise to good use on the penalty spot, and this season has been a great success in the
European crown
There were even three consecutive successful punts, hard to completely remedy the mistakes made by Porto's defense, and for the defense, having Diogo Costa at the helm also made the team much more tolerant of mistakes on the defensive end.
Of course, not only in defense, but also in passing, Diogo Costa is also the world's top, when we see Alisson long pass assist to find Salah goal, do not forget that Diogo Costa also has the ability to do so, in the face of Leverkusen is also the use of long pass assist to break the deadlock.
After being recently inducted into the
the national team
Since then, Diogo Costa has slowly taken over the starting role, even in the two recent
League of Europe
Both have a chance to start, and it's really hard to decide who to start with Patrício.
An excellent year, and perhaps, the last year we'll get to see Diogo Costa in action for Porto!
ever had a chance to compete for a starting job, even after the
League of Europe
Sá had a chance to earn a spot in the starting lineup, but unfortunately faded from the starting lineup as his little brother Diogo Costa grew up. Sá's stellar defensive numbers for the Wolves last year were due in no small part to Sá's stellar play. Although he won't get the chance to start, he's the best thing that could have happened to Portugal as a backup goalkeeper.
