Portugal Were NOT Supposed To Win The 2016 Euros | An Underdog Story

[Music] it does not matter to us whether it is spectacular or not sometimes you play in an unspectacular way and you win other times you play very spectacularly and you lose Fernando Santos Portugal manager 2016 the Euros is a special tournament it's also a competition that seems to welcome the extraordinary and more specifically the underdog 1992 Denmark wins after failing to even qualify 2004 Greece win after being absolutely nobody's favorite that same year Porto win the champions league and

Arsenal go Invincible a wild year likewise 2016 was also a year of surprises Leicester City win the Premier League yes Leicester and Portugal one pretty big themselves okay I know what some of you may be thinking Portugal are no underd dog Nation look at the roster but believe me when I tell you that they were not favored this was an upset Portugal had gone through Decades of disappointment golden Generations had come and gone scandals had been Rife in the national team setup there was disbelief

in the system they only won two games in this entire tournament in 90 minutes but this this is the moment that everything changed it's a moment where a striker that doesn't score scores a goal more important than anyone else to ever wear Portuguese colors it's a moment where the man that you'd think this story was written for wasn't even on the pitch it's a moment where the team that was supposed to win taste the defeat it's a moment that should not have happened but it did how hello everyone h

ope you're all doing well welcome back to the channel buckle up we're going deep today as a footballing nation Portugal is blessed truly there's a reason why they have the second most bondor wins by nation of course it doesn't help that number one is propped up by to be fair Portugal don't have much of a leg to stand on here but I digress despite all of the talent that this nation has boasted throughout history they had to wait until the late 2010s to capture their first piece of silverware why

a lot of reasons one of them being that they haven't always been that good and another being well bad luck though the World Cup and the Euros have been around since 1930 and 1958 respectively Portugal were a little late to join the party for both competitions the first World Cup ever in 1930 was invite only and Portugal were not invited but it was only a 14 team tournament back then and it wasn't taken all too seriously plus the Egyptians missed their boat so it was actually a 13 team tournament

qualification was introduced in the 1934 Edition but Portugal failed to qualify after losing 111 to Spain on aggregate over a two-leg tie yeah you heard me correctly I guess I should mention that Spain won the first leg 90 in Madrid and then the second one 2-1 in Lisbon hom ground Advantage am I right they failed to qualify for the 1938 World Cup 2 and since they were bigger things to worry about in the world and football no World Cups happened until 1950 a tournament which they also failed to

qu qualify for because Spain beat them 72 on aggregate in qualifiers it's a bit of a trend you see they were handed a Lifeline though turkey qualified but had to pull out because of Financial and logistical reasons the tournament was held in Brazil as times were understandably tough in Europe as well as the whole world following a war Portugal were asked to play in their place however they refused I couldn't find the exact reasoning behind this but I can only imagine that it had something to do

with the finances lack of adequate practice this time Etc and Etc problems everyone had they didn't qualify for the 1954 58 or 62 World Cups either even suffering a 91 aggregate defeat to Austria in the 54 qualifiers tough the UFA Euros was founded in 1958 but we don't have to dwell too much on that for now Portugal never qualified until 1984 in between all of this Portugal experienced their greatest World Cup performance to this very day 1966 England a World Cup filled with success that was nev

er before felt and some controversy that's still debated almost 58 years later the group stages saw them drawn against Hungary Bulgaria and Brazil the defending Champions that's quite the introduction despite this they went undefeated throughout the group stages beating Bulgaria and Hungary and drawing to Brazil disaster struck in the quarterfinals as North Korea took a 3-n lead against Saka within 25 minutes this is when the balandor holder at the time Uso stepped in and worked his magic a hatr

ick and an inspired performance led to Portugal running out 53 winners a match that many will not forget for the reasons you think and also for reasons a bit more questionable a lot of people think that England were already predetermined to win the World Cup in 1966 this is apparently due to a plot devised by FIFA the English FA the CIA the Illuminati klom you name it and there may be Merit to those claims England were the host nation and had made it to the semi-finals with a strong team themsel

ves Portugal were up next for them this match was supposed to take place at goodis and park the same stadium where Portugal completed their miraculous comeback against North Korea however at the last minute the venue was changed from goodis and park to Wembley an overnight train journey back in ' 66 the rationale for this l minute switch was commercial reasons Wembley did have about 30,000 more seats so fair enough but this meant that the Portuguese team spent much of their resting time travelin

g it's worth noting that England played every single one of their matches in Wembley during this world cup usero scored a late goal for Portugal but it wasn't enough for England who won the match thanks to two wonderfully taken goals by Sir Bobby Charlton to make matters worse two penalty appeals in favor of Portugal were waved off by the referee to many this Portugal side were victims of a fix but they weren't the only ones so get this Argentina's training ground in Birmingham had no goal posts

when they arrived before their quarterfinal match their accommodation was booked through an English travel agent who had said they would put them up in central London they were placed in wwin about an hour and 20 minutes out England scored a goal in the final that has since been proven to not have been a goal just as much as it's been proven to actually have been a goal did this cross the line controversial is the word I'm looking for anyway none of that is important this is Portugal story they

went on to secure third place overall by beating the Soviet Union in the third place playoff you serbio finished this tournament off with nine goals which of course earned him the Golden Boot not bad for Portugal's first ever World Cup appearance right they only qualified for One World Cup in the 36 years that followed the World Cup may not be Portugal's competition which isn't exactly something to be ashamed or sad about it's literally a competition contested by every single nation initially t

his team wasn't able to do much on the European stage either however in the years after this generation the entire picture changed since their first appearance in the Euros in 84 they've made it past the quarterfinals in all but three of the additions they've qualified for which is eight out of 10 of them which is great stuff but a lot like every other Nation disappointment and controversy has followed them throughout the years and throughout the competitions the 1984 Euros was a special competi

tion for Portugal their first appearance in yet another major competition and just like it was with their first World Cup appearance they went further than some may have thought they would progressing past the group stage that contained West Germany Spain and Romania in second place they got to the semis where a Michel platini Leed France awaited them this match is still described as one of the most exhilarating displays of football in the competition's history tension nerves and drama were the

order of the day France were the aggressors but Portugal were dangerous throughout after regulation time the team went to extra time with a 1-1 score line Portugal Drew verse blood but unfortunately France rallied scoring twice in 5 minutes minute 114 and 19 32 to France at the very least Portugal can take solace in the fact that France went on to win the whole thing after impressing with a fantastic 84 next up was the 86 World Cup in Mexico this was only Portugal's Second World Cup appearance s

o there was high expectations leading up to this one it was expected that they would do quite well here they did not instead Saka did not make it out the group and their whole campaign was moded by leaks and controversy this wonderful period in human history is affectionately known as the Saltillo Affair after Saltillo the Mexican city where Portugal was stationed during the tournament the tournament was doomed from the start as veteran Defender Antonio veloso tested positive for ban substances

and was cut from the tournament to add insult to injury the test was proven to be false shortly after the team trained on inclined surfaces and played practice matches against local B men and hotel employees because no no suitable warm-up opponents were prepared players wanted to shop around during their off days but were bombarded by the people of the town and time constraints instead a local politician's grandson volunteered to do the shopping for them while they remained at their hotel he dis

appeared with their money many of the players were invited to private parties and luxury Mansions which I assume happens at every major tournaments to this day the difference here is that word of these players cheating on their wives back home made National headlines in Mexico and Portugal after that the phones of the Portuguese players coaches and staff never stopped ringing but the most significant event was a strike by the players they were underpaid they were paid the lowest of any team at t

he tournament and none of the money paid from kit and gear sponsors was shared with them the Federation pocketed the money and never even used it on the team as evidenced by their poor training conditions and accommodation in protest players trained in inside out shirts or without shirts entirely to hide sponsor logos Portugal won their opening game against England but unfortunately lost to Poland and Morocco which decreased the validity of their claims that they deserved more money to some peop

le but most people including the media were on their side this whole thing led to a standoff between the Portuguese fa and the players where eight senior players were banned and actual football took a back seat the players union began to grow in strength from then on but sign ific damage was done to football in Portugal by this point they came into this one in good form but it would be 10 more years before they qualified for another major competition by 2000 Portugal were again amongst the world

's Elite and were there to stay this time Ry Costa J Costa Peta VOR Bay and of course Lu fuger were all regulars in the squad they reached the semis in the €2,000 EUR but were again knocked out by France this was a messy episode though a correctly called hand ball against Portugal in the 117th minute was met with physical protests by Portuguese players Abel xavia Nuno Gomez and Paulo Bento all three were hit with bands ranging from 6 to 9 months for throwing insults and shoving the referee again

France went on to win the whole thing the 2002 World Cup saw history repeat itself like 1986 Portugal came in after a great year of his performance a player was banned for doping before it will kicked off players were accused of focusing on shopping and not football preparation was subpar and to top it all off Lis Vego the best player on the planet was carrying an ankle injury group stage exit plus there were even more player protests based on unsatisfactory pay and then we have the tournament

that Portugal really should have won but did not the one that got away the 2004 Euros hosted in Portugal this team were the favorites to win it for far more reasons than just being the hosts just look at this squad including some of the players I've already mentioned now we have Pao Ferrera Ricardo cavalo Deco and a 19-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo this was their year they topped their group to go through then beat England and the Netherlands on their way to the final interestingly they had only lo

st one match throughout the entire tournament The Opening match against Greece a team that nobody thought twice about when it came to lifting the trophy they faced Portugal in the final and won an incredible defensive display by the Greeks meant the Portuguese with all their fire power were left with no answers people still lament this win to this very day calling it anti-football calling it cynical calling it all sorts of names and yet this picture exists it's real they won the Portuguese press

were amongst the first to call Greece out on their defensive football which is fair but extremely ironic we'll get into why in a bit this elimination marked the end of what many believe was Portugal's greatest golden generation important players retired but at the very least Cristiano Ronaldo was shaping up to be more than simply generational he wasn't loved by the English though in the 2006 World Cup quarterfinals Wayne Rooney stamped on a Portuguese player and it was correctly called as a fou

l after Portuguese protests Rooney was sent off Ronaldo led the protests the cameras captured a wink that made English blood boil then he became the best player in the world a year later playing for an English side and all was forgiven Portugal were knocked out in the semi-finals in 2006 though France again despite this Portugal now had a sustained foothold at the top level massive credit needs to go to Lis Scolari who coached them between 2003 and 2008 he oversaw qualification to every major co

mpetition for silaka including a Euros Final in 2004 a World Cup semi-final in 2006 and a Euro quarterfinal in 2008 the next years were very mixed for Portugal many highs and lows lows including the 2010 and 2014 World Cup the tactics were essentially Ronaldo and inshah highs included qualification to the 2014 World Cup a two-game playoff vers Sweden would decide who would go to the final tournament an insane Ronaldo hatrick and is Lan Ibrahimovic brace in the second leg provided us with one of

the most exciting qualifying matchups of the century 3-2 to Portugal saw them go through and basically secured the 2014 bondor for CR7 by now Portugal were a strong contender in every competition they entered but there was still doubt that they would come out on top when all things were said and done they were almost never favorites instead just a good team that can produce magic an opinion that wouldn't change despite what happened next former International Paulo Bento had been Portugal manager

between 2010 and 2014 and didn't do much by the way of impressing the public he was sacked to make room for Fernando Santos a longtime manager that coincidentally was managing Greece in his previous job managing AEK Athens pananos and Pa dating back to 2001 he also came into this job with an existing eight match ban for verbally abusing a linesman during a Euro qualifying match by this point in his managerial career the then 60e old had built up a reputation for being pragmatic and adaptable fo

cusing on achieving results over playing pretty football his time with Greece stands as Testament despite winning the Euros 2004 Greece was never a strong team as Oto rugle the previous Greece coach had done before him Santos uses the tools at his disposal to great effect rugle is best remembered for focusing on tight frustrating defense and Santos had that in him too but his approach was slightly more varied his teams knew when to attack and weren't afraid to push forward Greece made it to the

Knockouts of both the 2014 World Cup and the 2012 Euros to this date before that and after that the only time they've ever done so was when they won in 2004 as Greece manager Santos achieved a record of 267 and six in all competitions with two of those losses coming in friendlies a very impressive record given the circumstances so there was a clear brand of football to reference here he created strong bonds with his players in his time with Greece and the country had embraced him he had also man

aged all three of the biggest Portuguese clubs of all time at different intervals now it was time to put that familiarity to good use Paulo Bento had been sacked after losing his first qualifying match to Albania but after Santos had taken over Portugal won all six of their remaining matches to top their group each match Was Won by a single goal these guys weren't dominant but they were getting the job done even still they needed a little extra before they were Euro ready Santos did well to prov

ide it and this was despite the fact that Dany Thiago Bernardo Silva and Fabio quantra were all out because of injury here's how the team looked going into and during the Euros firstly he shed up the defense by encouraging more order and discipline a back four that did little by the way of pushing up the pitch and maintained a solid line at the back it helped that his defense was filled with experience and maturity to begin with Pepe Jose font Cedric and the only Defender that dared to venture f

orward rapael Guerrero all players that had the aptitude to be given a plan and stick to it the Midfield was set up in a 442 that was more often than not a diamond anchored by William cavalo or Danilo Pereira but apart from that the remaining midfielders rotated their starting positions routinely based on the opposition and the specific tactics Santos wanted to play Jean moutinho Adrien Silva and Andre Gomez Naturally Forward Thinking players interchanged between 8 and 10 going wide or Central a

s required jaia Mario and ronato Sanchez were the all action Midfield aggressors ratoo Sanchez was only 18 at the time but was making a lot of noise at Benfica he was in a lot of Portugal's matches in this tournament and was brilliant throughout up top was an interesting choice Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani both naturally Wingers both deployed as a striking partnership Nani played Central as a traditional nine and Ronaldo was given freedom to roome Ricardo kisma the genius technical dribbler was no

longer the player he once was and was reserved for the bench but his impact was not small with this set of players Portugal entered the Euros as qualif qualifying group winners but they were nowhere near the strongest team going into it based on form did they have what it takes Germany had yakim L France had Didia Des Italy had Antonio con Spain had vienta Del Bosque England had Roy Hudson and Portugal had a man whose last trophy had been the Greek football Cup in 2002 some big contrasts Portug

al needed the element of luck which they most definitely got even with the strength of the individuals that they had this team failed to win a single one of their group stage matches looking back on this record is actually quite remarkable given how things turned out don't get me wrong matches like their 33 draw versus Hungary were alltime Classics some incredible goals here too a zultan Gira Thunderbolts a Ronaldo heel flick and a towering header from a Charisma cross a goal made in sporting al

most two decades prior but a team that was this well let's be honest lack luster did they stand a chance well under the rules of every Euro before this one yep every single one no no they did not you see before the 2016 Euros only 16 teams participated the top two teams from four groups would go through to the first knockout stage the quarterfinals and we go from there this addition saw 24 teams participate adding an additional knockout stage this was made possible as the four best third ranked

teams also progressed leaving 16 teams going into the new run of 60 knockout phase and only eight teams being knocked out after the group stages Portugal finished third in their group and were the third best third ranked team overall a lucky break but their fortunes were far from over in the round of 16 Portugal faced croaa this was before Croatia made it to the finals of the 2018 World Cup but this nation was still still seen as a strong Dark Horse Luka Modric Ivan rakitic Ivan perisic and Mari

o manzukic and more made them a dangerous side they were better than Portugal simple as the stats and the eye test confirms it but Portugal did what they did best this year and frustrated the croats it took 117 minutes for the deadlock to be broken as Ricardo kesma scored off a rebounded Ronaldo shot the quarterfinals against Poland was much more evenly matched but all the same no team was able to win in regular time lots of credit needs to be given to ronato Sanchez for an inspired Midfield per

formance and for scoring The Equalizer that canel Robert levandowski opener for Poland it took penalties to decide this one and Portugal had the nerve to see it through when you make it to the final four of any competition you're entitled to start dreaming even if your performances haven't exactly being convincing at this point this team had made it to the semi-finals of the euros and was yet to win a single match in regular time for those reasons at the time Fernando Santos wasn't given the cre

dit he probably deserved yes Portugal were lucky in a lot of ways but to get to these levels requires more than just luck they had left opponents feeling tired and frustrated then they just seemed to keep pushing on it was only after they defeated a Gareth bail Le Wales that people seem to start giving the tactics some praise Nani and Ronaldo caused huge problems to this whales side scoring one a piece in a 2-n win and the defense remained as solid as ever it's worth noting that Belgium were one

of the favorites to win this whole thing Wales defeated them pretty comfortably in the previous round they were a confident capable side Portugal played a friendly match in the stud def France in 2014 just after Santos had taken over in an interview after the Wales win Santos said the following I called my players together in the stud defance and told them that our goal was to be right back here 2 years later for the final of Euro 2016 now we have a final to play and I don't just want to play i

t I want to win it this was already a fairy tale all the same nobody would have blamed you for thinking that it was about to come to a close in the finals they faced the hosts France France were monstrous this year they had been the best team in the competition scoring the most goals 13 have having the best goal difference plus n Fielding the strongest team on paper and in real life just look at this lineup Paul Pogba when he was actually good and consistent kante Fresh Off winning the Premier L

eague with Leicester 2016 Dimitri Patt the streets will never forget Hugo Loris well he was in the form of his life and of course Mr consistent Antoine gasman this was maybe his best year ever to date Sublime for Atletico more importantly Sublime for France so France were the host nation had won the previous two tournaments held at home had this weird thing where they won a Euros every 16 years dating back to their inaugural win in 1984 and they had the best set of players that the tournament ha

d to offer let's also not forget that before this France had faced Portugal three times in knockout runs of a World Cup or euros and had knocked them out each and every time but I guess Santos and Portugal decided not to read the odds or something the lineup was similar to how it had been all throughout the tournament of 442 Pepe and William cavalo had been missing due to injury and suspension respectfully but were back for the final the game was underway fronts were expected to look the better

side in this one so there was no surprise when they did from the Geto but even though Portugal had a plan going in it didn't seem to matter anyway because literal disaster struck a quarter of the way through the match Dimitri payot and Ronaldo clashed in the 17th minute causing Ronaldo very visible discomfort he tried to go on but it just wasn't happening he had to come off the tears from the agony of 2004's loss to Greece were replaced with a new set 12 years later I'm sure a lot of people in t

he stud def Hans thought the result would be the same the greatest player in the history of his country the greatest player ever to many especially back in 2016 in a match where Portugal needed him most fate would not allow it Santos had to rethink everything this was truly his moment to shine the reason why he will always deserve respect regardless of current opinions coresma came on to replace Ronaldo and Portugal switched to a 451 this packed the Midfield and gave Portugal ansers for every Ch

ristian D damp had for them and more they were willing to defend deep and weren't in any rush to push forward recklessly Ronaldo now resigned to the sidelines was consistently pictured shouting orders at his teammates I'm sure there are rules against players doing this I'm pretty sure the technical area is reserved for coaches and again this is Cristiano Ronaldo who was going to tell this man otherwise no one is the correct answer and then it happened divine intervention the most important decis

ion of Fernando Santos's entire career some would say life the clock hit 77 minutes France were starting to look more and more threatening Portugal weren't much of a threat with n90 years the lone Striker they needed a Target man insteed a dead there a forward with not a very good goalscoring record having had a fairly average career thus far he was the definition of an unsuspecting hero he had played a total of 30 minutes for Portugal in this tournament all of them in the group stages to this d

ay he has only scored five goals at International level and only one of them in a competitive match information that doesn't actually matter because that one counts for more than almost any goal any Portuguese player has ever scored for Portugal it all came down to extra time Rafael Guerrero hit the crossbar Andre Pier ginak hit the post gasman missed a fair few chances Soko took so many shots anyone could have taken it a stalemate in regular time not surprising for Portugal they had played a wh

ole 60 Minutes more of football than the hosts including two penalty shootouts they were no strangers to Long B battles but as for France this was the first time in this tournament that they' been dragged into Waters this deep their concentration was about to be put to a whole new test a test that lauram koseli failed 108 minutes gone Eder gets the ball on the left with his back to the goal and wriggles free he goes right and all of a sudden is surrounded by Samuel entiti Paul Pogba blaz matuidi

as well as koseli right behind him Patrice Evra and bakara or blocking any paring Lanes out wide he was alone with seemingly no options yet nobody was closing him down it's almost as if they were inviting him to shoot which I guess makes sense they were all tired plus more importantly this guy I mean this guy doesn't pose a threat right not got much help oh he doesn't need any help well Ronaldo had completely forgotten that he had a bum kn and was jumping for joy Portugal not only held on but k

ept attacking coming close to a second and after 12 minutes Portugal made history in the following years Portugal have maintained their position as an elite nation and even won the inaugural 2019 Nations League a competition that not everyone takes seriously I mean this isn't the place to debate it but it seems that players take it seriously so why not I guess Portugal haven't come close to to another final since the 2016 competition and perhaps it will be sometime before they do once more Ferna

ndo Santos went from hero to zero in the space of a few years as Portugal's results and gameplay dipped in quality ask any average Portuguese fan what they think of him on Twitter and they will refer to him as a terrorist a rift with Cristiano Ronaldo surely couldn't have helped his case there was only ever going to be one winner here however don't get anything Twisted the future of Portuguese football is very bright many of the young players are still maturing and have a lot to offer Ronaldo is

still kicking heck he scored the most goals out of anyone in 2023 at 38 years of age but taking things back to 2016 none of that seemed to matter history had already been made I'm sorry I keep bringing up 2004 but the comparisons and similarities are too strong to ignore France were resigned to the fate of Portugal back in ' 04 for some reason the UN RSE decided to play a good oldfashioned reverse card a host nation a team in great form a team with great players a final appearance a one no scor

e line eliminated add on the fact that Portugal were missing a man that has an airport named after him and what you have is nothing short of a miracle and then we have Eder A Lord some might say he's he's a very interesting case in the aftermath of all of it this trophy is still referred to as Ronaldo's trophy which it is he carried Portugal through dark times for over a decade but let's all show some love for Ed a by the time the trophy was being lifted he had faded into the background as the s

uperstars of the team stole the Picture Show and fair enough he only popped up for a moment all the same man oh man was that a moment ironically since then Eder hasn't really made the front page or headlines of most newspapers not in the way that many of the other Portuguese players have and when you look at the entire picture in a way in a funny way edir is the perfect metaphor for Portugal in 2016 an unlikely Victor a dark horse a threat that nobody considered until it was too late and there w

e have it let me know what you guys think about Portugal and their crazy history loved making this one feel free to follow the socials feel free to subscribe that's all for me today hope you guys enjoyed hope you're having a great day cheers and I will catch you in the next [Music] one