Coach: Luiz Felipe Scolari
Tactics: Expansive passing game with some wonderful individuals.
Star Player: Figo - veteran winger who is still one of the best in the world.
Verdict: Could go all the way. In Figo, Cristiano Ronaldo and Deco they can field one of the best midfields in the tournament. Wonderful going forward, they may struggle to stop shipping goals at the other end. Defensive organisation could be key and in Scolari, who won the 2002 event with his native Brazil, they have the perfect coach.
Ten things you didn’t know about Portugal
1. Portugal is the largest cork producing and exporting country in the world.
2. In Portugal the maternal surname is often placed before the paternal surname. The result is that some people may have up to four different surnames. Adding the usual two forenames, you can end up with, for example: Jose Ricardo Ferreira de Sousa Silva Carvalho.
3. Portugal is the oldest ally of the United Kingdom.
4. The four o’clock tea was first introduced in Britain by Portuguese Catherine De Braganza, queen consort to King Charles II of England, in the 17th century.
5. Portugal discovered the sea route to India and Brazil in the 15th century. The sea discoveries made Portugal the biggest world empire in the 16th century.
6. Portuguese is the seventh most spoken language in the world, being the native language of over 170 million people. It is, among other countries, the official language in Portugal, Brazil and some Southern African nations.
7. Portugal has a very long history of winemaking, being the Douro the oldest demarked and controlled wine region in the World. Portugal is immensely rich in terms of grape varieties with now more than 200 different ones, some with very odd names like ‘Dog Strangler’ and ‘Fly Droppings’.
8. The Portuguese have 365 ways to cook dry cod.
9. In Portugal, there is usually a television in the coffee shops.
10. The unique Festival of the Trays, held in Tomar every four years, traces its roots to a pagan fertility rite, though officially it’s related to the saintly practices of Dona Isabel (Dom Dinis’ queen) and has been held in its present form since the 17th century. The high-light of the festival is a procession of about 400 young white-clad women (traditionally they should be virgins!) bearing enormously tall tray headdresses stacked with loaves, decorated with colourful paper flowers and topped with a white paper dove. The next one will be in 2007.
