Portugal reached the semi-finals on the two occasions they participated in World Cups staged in Europe and go into the tournament in confident mood on the back of their historic Euro 2016 triumph. With the country’s greatest ever player, Cristiano Ronaldo, still at the very top of his game, supported by a crop of exciting young talents and a coach who has the full backing of the players, the press and the fans, the Selecao look well set, albeit with defensive concerns. Central defence could prove problematic, with the likely first-choice partnership of Pepe and Bruno Alves having a combined age of 71 years. Another worry for Portugal is the poor form or lack of fitness of the young stars that helped sweep the country to European Championship glory. Raphael Guerreiro, Joao Mario and Renato Sanches all made important contributions in France and were expected to only improve as they acquired more experience. However, Guerreiro has had terrible luck with injuries, Mario has regressed, and Sanches has completely fallen off the radar. Nevertheless, the emergence of Bruno Fernandes and Goncalo Guedes counter-balances this issue and the big picture suggests Portugal have the tools to cause a surprise for a second tournament running.

Portugal’s World Cup squad

Goalkeepers: Lopes, Beto, Patricio Defenders: Alves, Soares, Fonte, Rui, Pepe, Guerreiro, Pereira, Dias Midfielders: Adrien Silva, B Fernandes, Mario, Moutinho, M Fernandes, W Carvalho Forwards: Andre Silva, Bernardo Silva, C Ronaldo, Martins, Guedes, Quaresma

How did they qualify?

Fresh from being crowned European Champions, Portugal were brought down to earth with a bump when losing the first qualifying match 2-0 in Switzerland. From them on, though, the Selecao were perfect, winning the remaining nine matches while scoring 32 goals and conceding only two, including a surprisingly straight-forward 2-0 victory in the decisive final match versus Switzerland in Lisbon to clinch qualification. While it is true that apart from Switzerland the opposition was weak, Portugal reached Russia with a real swagger, the lethal partnership formed by Cristiano Ronaldo and Andre Silva – 24 goals between them – the highlight. For years Portugal stuck to a 4-3-3 template, but Fernando Santos has mixed up the tactics, with 4-4-2 his go-to formation, especially since the emergence of Andre Silva to partner Ronaldo up front. However, The AC Milan striker’s dreadful debut season in Italy may force Santos into a rethink, especially given the abundance of viable options to play wide in a 4-3-3, such as Gelson Martins, Goncalo Guedes and Ricardo Quaresma. That said, in Russia it wouldn't be a huge surprise to see Santos revert to the conservative tactics used so successfully at Euro 2016, especially against strong opposition, when the wide midfielders in a 4-4-2 were instructed to stay narrow (the coach even selected four central midfielders on occasions), with the width provided by the overlapping full-backs and/or one of the front two drifting to the flanks. If this system is adopted, Guedes may get the nod ahead of Silva up front.