The story
Portugal have spent sixty years chasing a ghost. Eusébio wept on the Wembley turf in 1966 after a third-place finish that remains their greatest World Cup achievement, and every golden generation since — Figo, Rui Costa, now Ronaldo — has arrived at tournaments carrying that weight of beautiful, agonising almost. They play football that looks like a painting but sometimes forgets to score at the right moment.
Yet this squad feels different in a quietly dangerous way. Roberto Martínez has built something with genuine depth — Vitinha pulling strings, Rúben Dias marshalling the backline like a man who takes losing personally, and Rafael Leão tormenting full-backs with that lazy, lethal stride that somehow accelerates out of nowhere. They are not a one-man show anymore, even if one man will take most of the headlines.
Because Cristiano Ronaldo is here, one final time, at 41, defying physics and probably a few doctors. He is the only player in history to score at five different World Cups, and North America in 2026 is where that story either ends in heartbreak or the kind of fairytale that makes you ring your dad and tell him to turn the telly on. Portugal will go deep. They always do. The question is whether this time they go all the way.
What to watch
Watch for the moment Ronaldo lines up a set-piece and an entire stadium holds its breath — at 41, every touch feels like a page being torn from a book you are not ready to finish. And when Leão gets the ball wide with space ahead of him, just enjoy it, because that is what football was invented for.
X-factor
Rafael Leão can win a match in four seconds flat — one burst of pace, one dropped shoulder, and suddenly the best-organised defence in the world looks like it has never met each other.
Portugal will dazzle, occasionally infuriate, and carry the emotional weight of a nation right to the knockout rounds, where the real drama — as always — awaits.
Their fixtures
Ronaldo's Last Stand Ends in Glorious Stalemate
Cristiano Ronaldo came to Los Angeles hunting World Cup glory one final time, and Serbia had the audacity to nearly steal the whole thing. Two goals apiece, a stadium of 70,000 in disbelief, and Group I suddenly wide open.
Ronaldo's Last Dance Meets Africa's Roaring Elephants
Cristiano Ronaldo, almost certainly playing in his final World Cup, faces an Ivory Coast side that has already survived the impossible once before. This is the kind of game that makes football fans out of people who claim they don't watch football.