Portugal manager Roberto Martinez will face high expectations at Euro 2024 with the responsibility of helping a talented squad to reach its potential and shaking off an underachiever tag that the Spaniard and his new team seem to carry.
Martinez, 50, was sacked by Everton and became Belgium’s manager in 2016 with a similar task to that assigned to him last year when he took over as Portugal’s coach from Fernando Santos after it lost to Morocco in the 2022 World Cup quarterfinals.
Portugal at a glance:
Martinez led Belgium’s golden generation of Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois and Vincent Kompany to number one in the world and third place at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
However, his Belgium side was a major disappointment at the 2022 finals in Qatar when it was knocked out in the group stage after finishing third behind Morocco and Croatia.
Martinez has now spent a little over a year coaching one of Portugal’s finest generations, with 39-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo and 41-year-old Pepe in the twilight of their careers.
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He has to deal with the pressure of trying to adapt his team to accommodate Ronaldo and prove they are not underachievers.
The Portuguese football landscape has been drastically transformed over the past two decades as the national team evolved from a mid-level side into one of the world’s best, with the country being viewed as a talent machine.
The rise of Ronaldo and Portuguese manager Jose Mourinho had a major impact on the country’s football culture, leading it to the Euro 2004 final and its Euro 2016 triumph.
Bruno Fernandes, Rafael Leao, Ruben Neves, Bernardo Silva, Vitinha and others will make Portugal, on paper, one of the best teams man-for-man in Germany. It won all of its 10 games in the qualifiers, scoring 36 goals and conceding twice.
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Martinez’s side are primed for Euro 2024 in a great vein of form but it must now deliver when it matters, starting with Group F matches against the Czech Republic, Turkey and Georgia.
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(With inputs from Reuters and AFP)
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