The national team has only three days left to make its debut at the 2022 World Cup. And for the third time in eight World Cup participations, the opponent is an African team, in this case Ghana, with key players Thomas Partey , Iñaki Williams, Mohammed Kudus, alongside brothers Jordan and André Ayew, and who also has Sporting striker Fatawu Issahaku.
And it can be said that Portugal’s duels with African teams have been anything but easy, after all they managed to win only three of the six official meetings, even losing the first two meetings.
On June 3, 1928, Portugal soon experienced its first disappointment, when it was defeated 2-1 by Egypt at the Olympic Games in Amsterdam, at a time when there was no World Cup football yet – the first edition was in 1930 – , reason why the Olympic Games were the most important football competition. The team from the corners was eliminated in the quarter-finals, with the goal scored by striker Vítor Silva.
It took Portugal 57 years to find another African team. And another big disappointment. The team, coached by José Torres, only needed a draw with Morocco to qualify for the round of 16 of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. the end, to soften the humiliation of a team that lived through the nightmare of the Saltillo case, with players at war with the Portuguese Football Federation.
The first victory in official competitions only came in 2006, at the World Cup in Germany. Portugal started the journey to fourth place in the tournament with Angola and the 1-0 win, thanks to a goal from Pauleta, well expresses the difficulties felt by Luiz Felipe Scolari’s team. Even worse was the debut in the subsequent World Cup, in 2010 in South Africa, where Carlos Queiroz’s attacks didn’t get any better than the 0-0 draw with Ivory Coast.
CR7 decisive in two wins
The return to winning ways came at Brazil 2014 right against Thursday’s opponent, Ghana. The 2-1 result did not prevent Portugal from falling into the group stage, with the side team, coached by Paulo Bento, suffering until the 80th minute, when Cristiano Ronaldo scored the winning goal. This after they capitalized on an own goal to put themselves ahead in the first half, with Asamoah Gyan equalizing shortly after the break. From this game, Pepe, William Carvalho, Rui Patrício (did not play) and Ronaldo resisted.
Now with Fernando Santos as coach, CR7 scored the goal in the fourth minute that enabled a much-suffered win against Morocco, creating even the best chances of the game. In fact, this was the only Portuguese triumph at the World Cup in Russia in 2018. It should be noted that Cristiano Ronaldo was decisive in two of the three victories achieved by the corner team against opponents from the African continent.
Ghana, one of the most talented teams in Africa, is in Qatar to repeat at least its best participation in the three World Cups in which it was present: the quarter-finals in South Africa 2010, a tournament in which it only lost in the tiebreak on sanctions against Uruguay. In the other two tournaments he was in, he reached the round of 16 in Germany 2006, where he was eliminated by the Brazilian team (0-3) and fell in the group stage in Brazil 2014, having scored only one point.
Source: DN
