| Shirt badge/Association crest | |||
| Nickname | Selecção das Quinas [1] | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Association | Portuguese Football Federation | ||
| Head coach |  Luiz Felipe Scolari (2003-) | ||
| Captain | Luís Figo | ||
| Most caps | Luís Figo (127) | ||
| Top scorer | Pauleta (47) | ||
| FIFA code | POR | ||
| |||
| FIFA ranking | |||
| Current | 8 | ||
| First international | |||
Template:Country data Spain 1931 Spain 3 - 1 Portugal  (Madrid, Spain; 18 November 1921) | |||
| Biggest win | |||
Portugal 8 - 0 Liechtenstein  (Lisbon, Portugal; 18 November 1994) Portugal 8 - 0 Liechtenstein (Coimbra, Portugal; 9 June 1999) Portugal 8 - 0 Kuwait  (Leiria, Portugal; 19 November 2003) | |||
| Biggest defeat | |||
Portugal 0 - 10 England  (Lisbon, Portugal; 25 May 1947) | |||
| World Cup | |||
| Appearances | 4 (first in 1966) | ||
| Best result | Third place, 1966 | ||
| European Championship | |||
| Appearances | 4 (first in 1984) | ||
| Best result | Runners-up, 2004 | ||
The Portugal national football team is the national football team of Portugal and is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF).
Portugal have qualified four times for the FIFA World Cup, but have neither won it nor any other major tournament. Their first World Cup appearance was in 1966, where the Portuguese reached their first semi final. In that year they lost only to the eventual world champions England. Portugal finished in third place and Eusébio was considered the best player of the tournament. The next two times Portugal qualified for the World Cup were 1986 and 2002, with Portugal going out in the first round both times. In the 1986 tournament, players went on strike over prize-money and refused to train between their first and the second games.
In 2003, the Portuguese Football Federation decided to hire Luiz Felipe Scolari, the Brazilian who had led the Brazil national football team to win the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Scolari led Portugal to the final of Template:Ec2 (The European Championships), where they lost to Greece, and to their second World Cup semi final in 2006, where they lost to France. The Portuguese were unable to equal Eusebio's 1966 third place finish as they lost to Germany 3-1 on July 8 in Stuttgart, settling for fourth place in the 2006 World Cup.
World Cup record
| Year | Round | Position | Games | Wins | Draws | Losses | Goals Scored | Goals Against |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
European Championship record
| Year | Round | Position | G | W | D | L | GF | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Famous players
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Most appearances
| Name | Games | Goals | First game | Last game |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luís Figo | 120 | 32 | 12-10-1991 | 03-06-2006 |
| Fernando Couto | 110 | 8 | 19-12-1990 | 30-06-2004 |
| Rui Costa | 94 | 26 | 31-03-1993 | 04-07-2004 |
| Pauleta | 82 | 46 | 20-08-1997 | 03-06-2006 |
| João Vieira Pinto | 81 | 23 | 12-10-1991 | 14-06-2002 |
| Vítor Baía | 80 | 0 | 19-12-1990 | 07-09-2002 |
| João Pinto | 70 | 1 | 16-02-1983 | 09-11-1996 |
| Nené | 66 | 22 | 21-04-1971 | 23-06-1984 |
| Eusébio | 64 | 41 | 08-10-1961 | 13-10-1973 |
| Humberto Coelho | 64 | 6 | 27-10-1968 | 27-04-1983 |
The Portuguese squad qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany and came in first place in Group D with victories over Angola (1-0, goal from Pauleta), Iran (2-0, goals from Deco and Cristiano Ronaldo) and Mexico (2-1, goals from Maniche and Simão).
Portugal defeated the Netherlands 1-0 in the Round of 16 on Sunday, June 25 in Nuremberg. The goal came courtesy of a Maniche strike in an acrimonious match marked with a total of 4 red cards and 16 yellow cards. On Saturday, July 1 at Gelsenkirchen in the quarter-finals, Portugal defeated England on penalty kicks (3-1) after a goal-less 120 minutes.
Portugal were defeated 1-0 by France in the semi-finals on Wednesday, July 5th at Munich, at their first World Cup semi-final since the days of Eusébio, 40 years earlier. The winning goal was scored by Zinedine Zidane's penalty kick. They lost to Germany in the third place match 3-1 on July 8 in Stuttgart. The team won the Most Entertaining Team award for their play during the 2006 World Cup. The award is always organized through public participation in a poll.
Squad
Head coach: Luiz Felipe Scolari
- Bruno Vale was injured in a UEFA U-21 Championship game vs. Serbia & Montenegro on 25 May and replaced by Paulo Santos.
Starting Line-Up and Formation
- 4-2-3-1 formation
Trivia
- In the 2006 FIFA World Cup, this team set a record for the number of yellow cards received by a national team in a single world cup: 24 in total.
- In the 2006 FIFA World Cup, this team also set a record for the number of consecutive minutes a national team played without scoring a goal in a single world cup: 364.
External links
Footnotes
- ^ Selecção das Quinas refers to the five shields ("Team of the Escutcheons") or the five dots inside them ("Team of the Bezants") in the Portuguese flag, used until the 70s as the shirt badge. Refer to Flag of Portugal for symbolism associated with these bezants.
- ^ Caneira has spent the run up to the tournament on loan to Sporting
- ^ Maniche has spent the run up to the tournament on loan to Chelsea
- ^ Postiga has spent the run up to the tournament on loan to Saint-Étienne