At the World Cup in Brazil 2 years ago they lacked the essential quality to support star man C.Ronaldo, and went crashing out at the group phase at the expense of Germany and the U.States.
Portugal will want to show they are not only all about C.Ronaldo when they open their UEFA Euro 2016 campaign with a hard matchup against Iceland. With 3 teams quite capable of topping the table from Group F, neither Portugal national team nor Iceland will want to give anything away in their 1st game in Saint-Etienne.
That said, much has changed in the Portugal national team camp since that frustrated,and veteran boss F.Santos has brought through a number of capable young players.
Though they're still a team very much at the developmental phase, Santos has shown his capability to organize a defense in his few years in charge of the Greek national team. He's instilled tactical authority and defensive cooperation into this Portugal unit; and when you combine that with Cristiano Ronaldo's firepower, you take a team that's going to be tough to beat.
TV: ESPN (US - English); ESPN Deportes (US - Spanish); TSN, RDS (Canada); BBC One (UK); RTP 1, Sport TV1 (Portugal); SíminnSport, SkjárEinn (Iceland)
Match Date/Time: Tuesday, 3 p.m. ET, 9 p.m. local
Venue: Stade Geoffroy Guichard, Saint-Étienne, France
But,count Iceland out at your peril. They might well be the minnows of this tourney,but they too are not without quality. They will be counting on a big demonstration from S.City playmaker G.Sigurðsson, who was the undoubted star of their attributive campaign.
If he can find pockets of space amongst Portugal's defense and midfield, he's got the capability to do serious damage. This match could well be closer than you'd imagine.
