The Portuguese National Team will play their third and final game of the group stage today against Switzerland. Switzerland, who have already been eliminated from the tournament, will surely try to go out on a positive note and give their best performance. Portugal, on the other hand, have already qualified and will need to stay focused. Speculation has Portugal playing their B-Team in order to rest their best players.
Portugal’s star winger, Cristiano Ronaldo, will most certainly not make the starting line-up as new Chelsea manager Scolari looks to give game time to players who have yet to play.
Portugal’s next opponent has yet to be decided, but it hasn’t stopped the off pitch politics and mind games from commencing. Earlier this week, Croatia went public in saying that they were happy to avoid Portugal in the quarter-final round. Just two days later, when the possibility of Croatia playing Portugal grew, they again went public in saying that they would feel sorry for Cristiano Ronaldo, because it would most certainly mean an early exit for Portugal.
Quarter-final opponents, in most part have yet to be decided. What we do know is that only a few teams are fancied to be standing on the field for the final game. Portugal is one of those teams.
The Portuguese National Team had a perfect start to this year’s Euro tournament, with two wins in their first two games to put them through to the knock out stages.
Cristiano Ronaldo knows that the toughest games are ahead, and Portugal are not taking any team for granted.
Portugal began their tournament with a game versus Turkey which they had a decisive win of 2 - 0. Four days later, they beat the Czech Republic 3-1. C. Ronaldo was involved in all three goals of that game, scoring one and setting up the other two.
There is a strong possibility that Portugal will face tournament favorites, Germany, in the quarter finals. Germany is presently the runners-up to Croatia in group B.
“I’m certain that game after game, it’s going to be progressively more difficult,” Ronaldo told euro2008.com. “We have to be prepared for this. There have already been surprises. Germany were the favourites against Croatia and Croatia still won.”
Ronaldo also confirmed speculation that Scolari will be resting his key players in the next game versus Switzerland, however he insists that the game will not be taken lightly.
“Our motivation remains the same,” he said. “The players who are coming in are going to give their best as they will want to show Mr Scolari they want to be in the first eleven. I think it’s going to be a good game because the majority of the players who will play haven’t played yet.”
The Italian daily, Tuttosport has calculated Portugal to be the most expensive team to buy at this year’s Euro tournament. Combining paid transfer fees, release clauses and realistic player value estimates, Tuttosport has come up with a figure of €300m for the Portuguese Squad. Spain is the only other participating country who come close to that honor.
Cristiano Ronaldo is valued at €100m (speculated Real Madrid offer to Manchester United), which is a slight increase from €83m ‘intrinsic value’ which was recently published by The University of Navarra, in Spain.
Ricardo Quaresma has a written ‘buy-out’ clause in his contract of €40m. should he leave, FC Porto will receive 75% of that.
Nani and Simao went for a total of €45.5m between the pair. Nani moving to Manchester United and Simao to Atletico Madrid a year ago.
Deco and young rising star, Moutinho are said to be valued in the 8 figure range if they leave their respective clubs this summer.
Jose Bosingwa is going to Chelsea next year. Chelsea paid a price of €25m. Other Chelsea men, Ricardo Carvalho at €30m and Paulo Ferreira €20m.
Pepe moved on to Real Madrid at a price of €30m.
Portugal’s National teams are known for playing the “Beautiful Game”, filled by great passes and individual dribbling skills. At prices like these, it seems that Portuguese players will be entertaining for their supporters and neutrals alike.
