Doha, November 23 (QNA) – The Portuguese national football team will begin its campaign in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 finals tomorrow, facing its Ghanaian counterpart in a match hosted by Stadium 974, as part of the Group H competitions.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s colleagues are preparing for their teams eighth appearance in the World Cup, since its first participation in the 1966 FIFA World Cup England, when Portugal finished third, its best achievement.
The Portuguese national team relies on its captain, Cristiano Ronaldo, to achieve the country’s dream of winning the cup for the first time, although a crisis surrounds the Portuguese captain following his departure from his English team Manchester United, however, Ronaldo knows all too well the value of the World Cup, and his teams objective to win its first world title, on top of its single continental coronation, having won the UEFA Euro 2016.
Ronaldo is currently making his fifth participation in the World Cup, attempting to become the first player to score at least one goal in five different World Cup editions (2006 – 2022), to beat Brazilian legend Pele and the Germans Miroslav Klose and Uwe Seeler.
Despite the suffering of the Portuguese national team, its coach Fernando Santos, who took the job over in 2014, has many elements capable of tipping the scales, especially Joao Felix, Rafael Leao, Bruno Fernandes, Joao Cancelo, Robin Dias, Bernardo Silva.
The 67-year-old coach is also looking for his second title with Portugal, after he led them to the UEFA Euro 2016 title at the expense of the French national team.
For its part, the Ghana national team hopes to write a similar scenario to that of the 2010 World Cup South Africa, after passing through to the quarterfinals in the best achievement of Ghanaian football in the World Cup.
The Ghana national team, which failed to make it to the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, is counting on a number of players born outside Ghana, such as Inaki Williams, who was born in Bilbao, along with Andre Ayew, the Qatari Al Sadd player, and his younger brother English Crystal Palace F.C Striker Jordan Ayew, as well as Daniel Amartey, the English Leicester City player. Tariq Lamptey, midfielder of the English Brighton and Thomas Partey, Arsenal midfielder.
Coach Otto Addo, who took office in February 2022, succeeding former Serbian coach Milovan Rajevac, hopes to add a new victory to his record after having succeeded in leading his country to the World Cup.
In terms of historical confrontations, both the Portuguese and Ghanaian national teams met in the World Cup on one occasion, which was in the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, which knew the Portuguese team’s superiority with two goals to one.
(QNA)