this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2023
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People take for granted Ronaldo's stats but Portugal was not a football superpower that people think they might be today. Even today, they lack severely in defense and attacking options at the very top compared to teams like Argentina, Poland (currently under-performing) and Brazil.
It's shocking that he and his team won the Euros at any point given Portugal have barely been an international side in all of their history.
???? Portugal have been an international side since 1921, and have placed in the top three at the 1966 WC, 1984 euros, 2000 euros, and got second in 2004. They aren’t Germany or Brazil, but it’s not like they’re Iceland. They’ve long been respectable.
That’s really inflating their tournament runs. They had only ever qualified for 3 World Cups before Ronaldo joined the team. They had made the semis twice in the history of the Euros but again had only qualified for 3 European Championships in their history before 2004. They are nowhere near the powerhouses that either Argentina or Brazil were and I don’t think it’s wrong to say they were not influential at all in World Cup football except for one tournament run. They were stronger in the Euros, yes, but they were not very present. It’s more down to the recent expansions and an explosion in Portuguese talent that has allowed Portugal to actually be regular tournament competitors.