The “heroes of the sea” are among the top two places in the preliminary phase to advance to the Main Round, and for that to happen, it will be practically mandatory to beat Romania, starting at 5 pm (Lisbon time), in the Danish city of Herning.
The team led by Paulo Jorge Pereira will face a team that is competing in the final phase for the fourth time – with a best record of ninth place in 1996 – but which has been world champion on four occasions (1961, 1964, 1970 and 1974).
Although they do not have the same arguments as the Portuguese, the Romanians should not be underestimated, as several of them have Champions League experience, playing for Dinamo Bucharest, a team coached by the Portuguese national team coach and Sporting’s opponent in the Champions League.
To confirm their place in the next round, the coach has at his disposal players who can decide games, namely the brothers Martim and Francisco Costa, both Sporting full-backs, but also centre-back Rui Silva (FC Porto), right winger António Areia (Tremblay) and pivot Victor Iturriza (Kuwait SC), the latter two being the oldest in the group, at 35 years of age.
On the other hand, there has also been a renewal in the group and at the Jyske Bank Boxen Arena, with a capacity for 15,000 people, there are six players who will live the dream of participating in the first final phase wearing the Portuguese colours: goalkeepers Pedro Tonicher (Cuidada Encantada) and Diogo Valério (Olympiacos), wingers Gabriel Cavalcanti (Benfica) and Miguel Neves (Saint-Raphael), centre back Filipe Monteiro (Sporting) and right wing José Ferreira (FC Porto).
Two days later, they will face North Macedonia, another opponent that is theoretically within the Portuguese team’s reach and which came fifth in 2012, its best performance in nine previous appearances.
The headline match of Group B of the 17th edition of the European Championship, which will be played in Denmark, Norway and Sweden until 1 February, will see the Portuguese take on the Danes, four-time world champions and European champions in 2008 and 2012, and will only take place on the final day, on Tuesday.