Since being admitted into the European Economic Community in 1986, this win last night has undoubtedly been Portugal's greatest achievement where football is concerned. Ever since they qualified out of their group and into the knockout stages, there has been a hovering doubt over whether or not Portugal even deserve to go as far as they did.
After coming third in a comparatively easy group, this team had been written off by virtually everybody who followed the tournament keenly. Genuinely deserving underdogs defeated big teams to knock them out and reach the highest stages of the Euro for the first time whereas Portugal dragged themselves to the top.
While their cohesiveness and gameplay that really binds them as a team are worthy of admiration, the general consensus stands that there were better teams that deserved much better than what Portugal got out of the tournament. We look at 5 reasons why Portugal did not deserve the Euro 2016 crown.
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1) The attitude of the players and manager
Football is dubbed as the beautiful game and the game loses its charm the second it becomes all about winning rather than about playing good football. This might be an extremely idealistic and romantic concept to modern day football where wins matter more than the technique used to achieve it but the fact remains.
There is a reason why tactics like tiki-taka and “parking the bus” receive a lot of heat from a vast portion of the footballing audience despite the fact that they are completely legitimate and break no rule in the footballing rule book.
Everybody associated with the Portuguese contingent reflected exactly this attitude which should ideally be unacceptable but is slowly gaining ground in modern day football. "Would I like us to be pretty? Yes," said manager Fernando Santos after the penalty shoot-out win over Poland in the quarter-finals. "But in between being pretty and being at home, or ugly and being here, I prefer to be ugly." Furthermore, Nani was reported as saying, “"If we need to sacrifice playing well in order to get a result, we will do so." They are completely within their rights to carry on playing this way but as long as they do so, the better teams will never completely get the glory they deserve.
2) They did not win more than one game in 90 mins
Okay, they did not use any illicit means to win any of their matches. They won them all fair and square. However, the way Portugal won the games ensured that they faced a lot of heat. Their tactics and the constant 1-0 scoreline for most of their games makes them deserving of the title that has been given to them, “the worst champions in history”.
During their seven games, they managed to win just one in the stipulated time of 90 minutes and survived the rest mostly on penalties or late extra time shots which took advantage of the opposition's momentary weaknesses.
Firstly, they reached the knockout rounds without winning a single game. Then, in the round-of-16 clash against Croatia, a 117th-minute goal by Ricardo Quaresma was the saving grace for them in the tournament. While the oppositions were equally at fault for faltering during the long games and Portugal deserve due credit for not giving up for 120 minutes, this is just wrong on so many levels.
They have been compared to the way Greece became champions in 2004, a claim that Nani has vehemently spoken out against.
3) They played defensive football most of the time
All football teams are quite within their rights to have typical tactics that they are recognised by. Ordinarily and ideally, a wholesome growth of a team in all departments should be encouraged but this does not seem to be the scenario in case of Portugal.
The manager of the team and some key players have gone on record to admit that they would not be changing their style of play simply due to the fact that it gets them the required results. Reiterating the fact that this is in no way wrong, it is just a bit unsportsmanlike.
Barring their match against Hungary which resulted in a 3-3 draw, their defence has been so strong that in the match against Croatia, neither team registered a single shot on or off target till extra time. Croatia did not manage a shot on target even during that period.
On the other hand, Wales registered only three shots on target in 120 minutes. This cumulative absence of attacking with a focus only on defence may have gotten the team the desired results but it reeks of a wide disbalance within the ranks of the team.
France did well against Portugal in the final, especially during the first 10 minutes of the game where they looked just about ready to win it for sure. Again, Portugal managed to find their ground and attacked at one of the few vulnerable moments displayed by the hosts. It is commendable that Portugal is good at what they do but is that enough justification for a win when other teams have done much more?
4) France created more chances in the game
The onus of the loss is completely on France as they failed to capitalise on some wonderful chances that they created during the first half of the game. In the end, France was out possessed and out passed and lethargic as the game drew a close. It might be possible that France wanted to see the game through to a penalty shootout and it is this attitude that Portugal was eventually able to take advantage of.
The brief periods that France had possession were times they maneuvered the ball beautifully only to be stopped by a strong and virtually impenetrable defence, whereas all Portugal seemed to do was pass the ball. Their safety-first attitude was prevalent throughout the game.
After Antoine Griezmann's misdirected header which left Portugal feeling incredibly lucky, the other big chance for France came when Kingsley Coman provided a pass to Olivier Giroud who failed to finish big and become a hero for his country.
Portugal's first shot on target came in the 80th minute just before Bacary Sanga's pass to Griezmann and Andre-Pierre Gignac's unbelievable miss saw the scoreline remain 0-0 as the game slipped into extra time.
No chances created, the team seemed to survive more on missed chances by the opposition than anything else.
5) Portugal were lucky to make it out of the group
UEFA has faced a lot of criticism for the new expanded format despite which they have categorically stated that they will be sticking to it for the Euros to be held in 2020. However, one team that definitely will not have any issues with this format is Portugal.
Portugal, arguably, drew the easiest group as any to qualify from and because they were devoid of any big names. Stuck in a group with Hungary, Austria and Iceland, it is a wonder that the team finished third in Group F and managed to qualify only on a mere technicality after Iceland defeated Austria to provide some relief for Cristiano Ronaldo's team.
Third-placed teams would not even have qualified had it not been for the addition of another knockout. They were the only third placed team to not register a single win in any of their three group stage matches.
One might argue that none of this matters since the tournament has been played and the team that was meant to win it has already won. Taking nothing away from Portugal's fortitude, one must concede that a lot of luck has played its role in this team winning the trophy. They may not be the worst champions, that title might be a bit too harsh, but they are certainly not the most deserving.
