European U21 Championship – Portugal Team Preview

Date: 16th June 2015 at 12:05pm
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Portugal’s U21 stars are ready to shine and bring the spotlight and the EURO Under-21 trophy to their country for the first time.

After a blistering qualifying campaign, if they can carry over their form to the grand stage then there is little stopping the Portugal stars of tomorrow from challenging for a victory medal each.

Route to the Finals

The young Portuguese passed through the qualifiers with flying colours, scoring 22 goals and conceding just six, winning all eight games. After completely dismantling Norway 5-1 in the opening match, Portugal went on to crush Israel 3-0 before winning 2-0 against Azerbaijan in their first away fixture.

Second placed Israel gave the Portuguese a tougher time in the reverse fixture, but the Esperancas still managed to finish on top, getting by with a 4-3 win.

They then made quick work of Macedonia, winning 2-0 and 1-0 in the home and away matches, respectively, and survived a rejuvenated Norway side, scraping by with a 2-1 win, before finally finishing the group stage with a strong 3-1 win at home to Azerbaijan.

Portugal were then put to the test facing a strong Dutch team in the playoffs, but held on well and beat the Dutch with a resounding 9-4 aggregate score.

Past Record

The country’s young stars have never won the competition before, with their best finish as runner-ups coming back in 1994 with a team including a young Luis Figo, who also happened to win the competition’s Golden Player award that year.

In fact, prior to 1994, they hadn’t competed before, so the team’s strong performance in EURO U21 ’94 was both a surprise and a pleasant change to their fortunes, and set high expectations for 1996.

Unfortunately, those expectations were never met, with the team finishing a disappointing seventh place, and falling further out of contention at the next two competitions, failing to qualify for both the 1998 and 2000 finals.

The Esperancas finally returned to the competition in 2002, finishing fifth, but made a resurgence in 2004 and took home the bronze.

Even though the competition was held on home soil in 2006, the team could not live up to the hype and turned out for a sixth place finish, and followed that up by finishing fourth a year later.

They fell out of contention again from 2009-2013, not qualifying, but have finally come good this year and look to stand a real chance of grabbing the competition by its neck.

Key Player

There are a number of future superstars on Portugal’s U21 team, and spearheading the Portuguese attack this summer will be Ricardo Pereira.

The 21-year-old Porto player is an interesting prospect in his own right, but what makes him stand out from the rest of the players is his form and goal-scoring record heading in to the finals.

Ricardo appeared in all eight of the qualifiers and the two playoff matches, leading the team in the scoring charts with five goals.

What’s even more important is his big game experience. As a 19-year-old, Ricardo played a key role in Vitoria Guimaraes’ success in obtaining the Taca de Portugal. Along with scoring an incredible brace in the semi-finals, he also scored the all important winning goal in the finals, shockingly upsetting favorites Benfica and leaving defenders on the ground in the process.

The Coach

Tasked with the job of building a trophy winning team is Portuguese coach Rui Jorge.

Though relatively inexperienced, he has worked with youth players since he began his managerial career, and has been the Portugal U21 coach for five years and counting.

Although he failed to bring his team into the competition in 2011 and 2013, his side looks stronger than ever and his patient work with the team has paid off.

Portugal’s U21 team this year looks to be the powerhouse it was back in 1994, and stands a strong chance of having a deep run into the EURO U21 finals.

 

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