4 week injury time for Ronaldo

Yesterday’s win was bitter and sweet. I knew this would happen, ugh. Considering that Nani will be the obvious replacement, I’m not sure he can provide the same type of flair that CR7 brings. Not to mention that this will be a morale blow.

I HOPE WE DRAW AGAINST SLOVENIA!

A team like Bosnia or Ireland definitely have the potential to beat a Ronaldo-less Portugal.

No offence to Slovenia lol.

Let’s just hope Ukraine & Slovenia stay runners up in their respective groups so we remain in the top 4 seedings for the play-offs. I would hate to see us match up against the likes of Russia, France or Greece (the latter two being our kryptonite teams)…with or without Ronaldo.

Forca.

First of all, congrats to Portugal for the playoff spot. I´m swedish and disapointed but realistic that our current national team aren´t good anough this time for a world cup. denmark and portugal deserves it.
I have a question: Are you sure Potugal will take the 4:th seeding spot?? For me it seems it will be close with Ukraine gaining alot of ranking points after their win over England. Is it possible to calculate the actually ranking points right now?

Posted from  Sweden

It’s not impossible but a 51 point jump just for a win over England does seem a bit unlikely. Adding to that, I wouldn’t be surprised if Portugal gained a few points also since they’re finally getting their act together. We’ll find out Friday!!

Posted from  United States

Thank you Henrik.
According to FIFA’s ranking points calculations method (http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/fifafacts/rawrank/ip-590_10e_wrpointcalculation_8771.pdf) the Ukraine will indeed get a lot of points for that victory but as Sergio pointed out they are 51 points behind Portugal and we won both games against Hungary so we will also get some points. I’m positive Ukraine will not get ahead of us.

Posted from  Portugal

@Sergio
France and Greece are indeed our kryptonite teams (France more so) but I’d rather we beat one of them now, having 2 matches to play, then during the WC were it could come down to a coin flip (penalties) or Henry tripping on the grass inside the penalty box with some cunt ref calling it (deja vu). In the end I just want to beat every mother effing team that stands in our way towards becoming the next world champions. There. I’ve said it.

Posted from  Portugal

@Miguel
You’re right and I might actually feel the same way but it also wouldn’t be a bad thing to have that time leading up to next Summer to get our cohesion and chemistry back on track before playing one of those types of teams. Then again, as we tend to let our guard down, it is the less threatening teams that give us more trouble typically so maybe we do need a big team to push us into getting our swagger back!

I guess it’s just best to let whatever happens happen and trust in our boys to keep us on track. All I know is whomever we have to plow through in the play-offs, at least when we come out on the other side, and step foot onto that pitch in South Africa, our confidence will be at the highest it’s been in a long while…which is when we’re at our most dangerous!! Forca!

Ukraine will be getting 400 more points then Portugal from Saturday’s match (yes I’ve calculated it) However this number will be divided by the number of matches played in the past 4 years.

I think we should be more worried about: Ukraine not winning against Andorra and Portugal not winning against Malta.

I also agree with Miguel, I would rather face France in the play-off then losing to them in the semi-final… again.

@João
Well that’s good news…they’ve undoubtedly played way too many games in the past 4 years to give them the requisite 51 points to leapfrog us. I feel sorry for Croatia but…go Ukraine!