Perhaps to better portray the villain in the European Championship final against host France, Portuguese players have revived a mindset famously glorified by fans of English club Millwall decadesago.
“No one likes us, no one likes us, no one likes us, we don’t care,” sang fans to the tune of “Sailing,” a song popularized by Scottish rocker RodStewart in the 1970s. A notorious hooligan reputation and grim style of play condemned Millwall to a villain’s role, and many years later at Euro 2016, for different reasons Portugalhas been cast as the bad guy. More than once.
Cristiano Ronaldo has been his brilliant and infuriating self. He seems to wave his arms and complain every time he hits theground, and while sometimes his case is valid, it all gets a bit tiresome as the fortunes of other teams rise and fall. Portugal’s run to the final just hasn’t been as interesting as thefall of Spain, another embarrassment for England, the seemingly inevitable collapse of Belgium, and uplifting upsets reeled off by Iceland and Wales.
Until it vanquished valiant Wales in thesemifinals, Portugal hadn’t held a lead in regulation. After tying all three of its group games to finish third, it scored late in extra time to down Croatia, 1-0 in the round of 16, andeliminated Poland on penalties after a 1-1 tie to set up a showdown with one of several teams to light up the competition by punching above its weight.
Portugal took advantage of a Welsh teamsorely missing Aaron Ramsey and Ben Davies, both suspended, and by winning, 2-0, assured its place as the less popular finalist regardless of opponent. When Francederailed the German juggernaut by the same score to assure a festive few days leading up to the final in Paris, and several more days of utter jubilation should the home team clear the final hurdle,the Portuguese camp took on a bunker mentality.
“We don’t care about them,” said midfielder Joao Mario, channeling at least a bit of Millwall, to journalistsFriday. “We don’t want to win to have our revenge, we want to win for the fans. We above all believe in ourselves, the coach was the first one to transmit this spirit. There will always becriticism but we believe in ourselves.”
Head coach Fernando Santos and his players are getting no credit from neutrals for its spirit and belief. It had to rally againstIceland (1-1) and Hungary (3-3) to earn ties — the Austria game ended goalless – and survived long, anxious periods against both Croatia and Poland, which scored in second minute but was thenblanked for nearly two hours by a Portuguese defense that except for the Hungarian hiccup has proven tough to crack.
It shut out Wales despite the absence of Real Madrid stalwartPepe, who is racing to recover from a thigh strain, and Monaco veteran Ricardo Carvalho, who was suspended. Bruno Alves replaced Pepe against Walesand could do so again Sunday in the Stade de France.
Pepe, 33, did not train with his teammates Friday but worked with a trainer. A rough, robust centerback is never popular among opposingfans and players, and Pepe already wears the villain’s cloak in the minds of many observers.
He served a 10-match ban in 2009, two years after joining Real, for kicking, studding andfighting with several opponents in a game against Getafe. He stepped on Lionel Messi’s hand during a Clasico against Barcelona four years ago. Head-butting ThomasMueller in a World Cup 2014 group match earned him a red card.
More controversy tainted Portugal prior to the Wales game. In an interview, former Auxerre coach GuyRoux stated that Portugal midfielder Renato Sanches, scorer of the goal against Poland, is much older than his listed age of 18. According to Roux, he is “23 or24.” The media and Internet jumped all over a story that apparently really wasn’t much of one, but roiled the cyberworld nonetheless.
The confusion stems from the fact though Sanches wasborn in Lisbon in 1997, the birth wasn’t registered until five years later. Sanches’ parents, both African immigrants, split up shortly after he was born and not until his father returnedto Lisbon in 2002 was the birth officially registered.
“Everyone knows Renato Sanches,” said Santos. “He was born in Portugal like I was, and registered like I was. He is18, I am 61. This is a joke.”
Maybe all this tumult will forge an even stronger, “us-against-them” mentality when Portugal takes on France, and much of the world, in anattempt to claim its first major international trophy.
“The key is believing, never stop believing, correcting mistakes, keeping strong, staying together even in the not so good moments,like in the group stage,” said Joao Maria. “Keeping solid, we were very happy to qualify. We believe in our colleagues next to us – this is the spirit that brought us here.”