Europe’s elite competitions may be over, but that means the international tournaments have arrived! With Euro 2024 and Copa América 2024 underway, it’s all eyes on the best players in the world representing their countries. Naturally, these tournaments create some epic match-ups. This is why we’ve brought back the Lucky 5 Predictor Trivia for you to try to win one of two grand prizes!
Back to the competitions at hand, there’s been a lot of momentum building behind one Euro team in particular. Ask most people, and they’ll say that Portugal is one of the favorites. If not, the outright favorite. Looking at what Roberto Martínez has brought to Deutschland, it’s easy to see why.
Perfectly balanced squad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mGv60SVH_c
Of course, the big news is that Cristiano Ronaldo is at Euro 2024. He fell out of favor with the last boss, Fernando Santos, but was been welcomed back with open arms. The legendary striker put up 50 goals this season. They were scored in the lacklustre Saudi Pro League. However, it kept him sharp for the national team and a constant pop-up on the Betensured Live Scores page.
For Martínez, Ronaldo scored 12 goals and set up two more in 11 games. Around him, Bruno Fernandes has scored nine with nine assists in 14 games. João Félix, Diogo Jota, and Gonçalo Ramos follow with four goals each. So, it’s pretty clear that the 39-year-old is pivotal to the Portuguese attack.
Importantly, this is a high-caliber and seasoned squad. Jota, Rúben Neves, Bernardo Silva, Fernandes, João Palhinha, João Cancelo, Rúben Dias, and Nélson Semedo are all in that physical prime bracket of 27-to-30 years of age. Plus, they all feature prominently in elite-tier competitions.
At the other end of the pitch, Ronaldo is a player who boasts a similarly high level of talent for his position. Diogo Costa has emerged as Portugal’s number one and one of the best goalies in Europe. For FC Porto, who finished third with a +36 goal difference, he only conceded 25 goals in 33 games and held 14 clean sheets.
Not-so-quietly optimistic
The view in Portugal and for many fans across Europe, this could be Portugal’s year. Many players on the team have already experienced European glory. Martínez has picked a high-caliber team that played exceedingly well through qualifying. With ten wins from ten, 36 goals for, two goals against, and nine clean sheets, they look ready.
It’s why so many in Portugal are all-in on febre do futebol (football fever)! They’re turning to sites like Premier Bet for their outright apostas online (“bets online” in Portuguese) to get Portugal’s odds. Before the Ronaldo-led team’s first kick-off, they were at 7.40. That’s only behind England, France, and Germany who had already won.
Further fuelling the febre will be the slight struggles of other favorites out of the gates. Belgium lost to Slovakia. France were unconvincing in their 1-0 win over Austria, as were England against Serbia. Italy also had to recover from an early setback to win 2-1.
It’s all bubbling up to, understandably, frame Portugal as a true outright contender. Plus, another triumph for Portugal would be the perfect send-off for one of the best players the sport has ever seen.
