Portugal

Portugal have gone relatively close over the past decade or so in many major tournaments but they have never quite had enough to win anything. You would have thought the addition of Cristiano Ronaldo to the Portugal squad would have changed things in the past few years but they are still falling short, although they can be forgiven a second round exit in the World Cup as they had to face Spain, who went on to win the tournament.

As always you can expect a decent showing from the Portuguese but it is slightly worrying that they once again required the help of the playoffs to reach the Euro 2012 finals. Portugal look like a team that play at their best against stronger opposition so expect improvement here.

Best Bets On Portugal At Euro 2012

Here are the best bets on Portugal at Euro 2012 in the most popular betting markets:

Portugal To Be Eliminated At The Group Stage

Portugal could have been lively outsiders for the European Championships, after all they have a pretty strong record at the finals, but they have been presented with an almost impossible task in Group B having been drawn with two of the three best sides in the world (officially) and to top it all off the team that finished above them in qualifying. On that form they should finish bottom but even some improvement from qualifying probably won't be enough for them to qualify from Group B.

Portugal To Finish Third In Group B

As stated above, on qualifying form Portugal should finish bottom of Group B but they have only three points from eight games to make up on Denmark to finish at least third and there is previous evidence that Portugal tend to perform better at major tournaments than in qualifying. At the last World Cup Portugal once again needed the playoffs to qualify yet drew with Brazil in the group stage and it required eventual winners Spain to knock them out 1-0 in the knockout rounds. Portugal should be able to improve and finish above Denmark but Germany and Holland look a step too far.

Helder Positga To Be Portugal Top Scorer

Cristiano Ronaldo have been the top scorer for Portugal in qualifying but he only scored two more goals than Helder Positga and scored in one more game than Positga. Ronaldo was favourite to be Portugal's top scorer at the World Cup but let punters down and it could pay to take the value on Positga who outsocred everyone but Ronaldo in qualifying. 

Portugal Qualifying Results

After a not so great qualifying phase Portugal eventually needed the playoffs to make it through to the Euro 2012 finals. Portugal won only five of their eight group games and results such as the surprise draw at home to Cyrpus and away losses to Denmark and Norway were reasons why they didn't qualify automatically. Portugal remain a talented team though that teams will want to avoid at Euro 2012.

Portugal Euro 2012 Squad

This is the predicted 23 man Portugal Euro 2012 squad, when the final squad is announced the squad will be updated:

Goalkeepers: Eduardo, Rio Patricio, Beto.

Defenders: Fabio Coentrao, Rolando, Silvio Pereira, Pepe, Joao Pereira, Bruno Alves, Ricardo Carvalho, Miguel.

Midfielders: Nani, Raul Meireles, Joao Moutinho, Miguel Veloso, Carlos Martins, Ruben Micael, Ricardo Quaresma, Manuel Fernandes.

Forwards: Helder Postiga, Hugo Almeida, Cristiano Ronaldo, Danny.

Portugal Player Stats From Euro 2012 Qualifying

Portugal Player's Goal Stats

Here are the most important goal stats from Portugal's Euro 2012 qualifying group. Use these to pick the best goalscorer bets on Portugal's games at Euro 2012.

*All stats reflect bookies rules for own goals and 90 mins play in their respective markets. Four other Portugal players scored a single goal in qualification.

Cristiano Ronaldo was unsurprisingly the main man for Portugal during qualifying for Euro 2012, he was the country's top scorer and he also had the best goals to games ratio, scored in the most games, scored the joint most first goals and also scored the joint most last goals. Most goalscorer bets are going to revolve around the Real Madrid forward in Portugal matches at Euro 2012 and with good reason.

If there is a bit of value to be had in the goalscorer markets at Euro 2012 in games involving Portugal it is probably with Nani scoring the first goal of the game or Helder Postiga scoring the last goal of the game. Nani will be a bigger price than Ronaldo to score first but scored the same amount of first goals in qualifying as Ronaldo whilst Postiga will also be a bigger price than Ronaldo in the last goalscorer betting but he scored as many last goals as Ronaldo in qualifying and in fact had a very good last goals to games ratio.

Portugal Players' Disciplinary Stats

Check Portugal's yellow and red card stats below to help highlight the best bets in the cards markets for Portugal's Euro 2012 matches.

Portugal's level of discipline wasn't too bad during qualifying but wasn't great either, they picked up a total of twelve bookings in their ten matches. Only two of those bookings were the first bookings of the matches and they were collected by goalkeeper Eduardo and midfielder Raul Meireles. 

Two players picked up more than one yellow card over the ten games of qualifying and they were Helder Postiga and Ruben Michael. Despite playing in attack Postiga managed to get himself into the referee's notebook twice whilst Ruben Micael was booked twice despite only making one start and four sub appearances. It would be no surprise if these two players were amongst the most booked for Portugal once again at Euro 2012.

Portugal Team Stats From Euro 2012 Qualifying

Portugal's team stats can be found below, these stats can be applied to plenty of match markets during Euro 2012.

Portugal scored a fairly large amount in qualifying, especially for a team that didn't win their group, but their goal tally was helped by scoring six goals in one match against Bosnia Herzegovina in their playoff. Portugal also conceded plenty of goals during their qualifying campaign, they conceded fourteen goals in the seven matches that they failed to keep clean sheets in.

Portugal were involved in many high scoring games during qualifying and it seems their games are either under 1.5 goals or over 3.5 goals, only one of their matches had precisely two or three goals. This suggests that over 3.5 goals could often be a value bet on Portugal games at Euro 2012.

Portugal have plenty of firepower in their side and only failed to score in two qualifying matches, you can certainly expect Portugal to score in all their games apart from the ones against the very top sides, and even those teams are far from guaranteed a clean sheet against Portugal. 

Portugal weren't winning many of their games at half time, just half of them in fact, and against better teams at Euro 2012 that ratio could even go down further. Because Portugal failed to win the first half of many of their games it was no surprise that they failed to win both halves of all but two matches. At Euro 2012 Portugal could be a good bet to be drawing at half time and to win at full time or to be losing at half time against the better teams.

Portugal Recent European Championships Performances

Portugal have a very strong record in recent European Championship, they have qualified from the groups on the last four occasions and even reached the final in 2004, only to be beaten by surprise package Greece. On the other three occasions Portugal reached two quarter finals and one semi final and they clearly perform well on the big stage.