Women’s Euro 2025 Team Previews | Portugal
The potential is there with this Portugal side, but will this be the tournament that they finally match that and actually be able to progress past the group stages?
Known for being a well-organised team that have progressed and grown over the last few years. Francisco Neto and Portugal head into this summer’s Euros with hopes and ambitions to make it past the group stages for the first time in their third appearance at a Women’s European Championship.
Qualifying for this major tournament almost didn’t happen after they came close to a playoff exit when they came up against the Czech Republic. Drawing the first leg 1-1, before then beating them 2-1 thanks to a Diana Silva brace in the second leg. From 2024 onwards, they were on a pretty good unbeaten run due to their qualifying run, although their last four games have seen them concede a minimum of three goals in each of them.
This team has managed to break new ground over the last decade or so and with their youth setup having been able to produce a few good talents, the squad over a period of time has slowly been improving and with it has begun to create this sense of optimism about them, which they will hope to use as motivation to take a major step forward in their progression.
Group B opponents and fixtures:
Spain | 3rd July - 8PM BST
Italy | 7th July - 8PM BST
Belgium | 11th July - 8PM BST
Having previous tournament experience will be fairly important for them because of the tough group that they find themselves in. Coming up against the reigning world champions Spain first will a case of getting the hardest task out of the way before what will be crucial matches vs Italy and Belgium, who are two other nations aiming to take the same next step in progression that Portugal aspire to make.
Squad:
Goalkeepers | Inês Pereira (Deportivo La Coruna), Patrícia Morais (Braga), Sierra Cota-Yarde (AFC Toronto)
Defenders | Ana Borges (Sporting CP), Ana Seiça (Tigres UANL), Bárbara Lopes (Torreense), Beatriz Fonseca (Sporting CP), Carole Costa (Benfica), Carolina Correia (Torreense), Catarina Amado (Benfica), Diana Gomes (Sevilla), Joana Marchão (Servette)
Midfielders | Andreia Norton (Benfica), Andreia Jacinto (Real Sociedad), Andreia Faria (Benfica), Dolores Silva (Braga), Fátima Pinto (Sporting CP), Kika Nazareth (Barcelona), Samara Lino (Torreense), Tatiana Pinto (Atlético Madrid)
Forwards | Ana Capeta (Sporting CP), Carolina Mendes (Racing Power), Diana Silva (Sporting CP), Jéssica Silva (Gotham FC), Lúcia Alves (Benfica), Stephanie Ribeiro (UNAM), Telma Encarnação (Sporting CP)
*This is a provisional 27-player squad chosen by Francisco Neto. This will be updated to the final squad once announced.
A couple of names in this Portugal squad have been involved with the national side for a very long time and been a key part of the growth of women’s football in Portugal. One thing they haven’t been known for is being a team that is built around one single top-class player. However, that could have all-changed heading into Euro 2025 if their star talent Kika Nazareth had been available.
Nazareth was in the squad for Euro 2022, but her evolution as a player since that tournament has been exciting to watch and it was a shame to see her suffer a long-term injury that ruled her out of this tournament. She will be a big miss, but also it means that Portugal won’t have to be judged as a team that rely on one player for quality.
The two forward’s Jéssica Silva and Diana Silva have both been very reliable in the past for the Portuguese national team and are two of the most experienced players in the squad. Elsewhere, the squad as a whole is a group that have recently all been utilised in some way, which has created a good bit of balance and depth that they will hope can carry them forward.
Player to Watch - Tatiana Pinto
Despite the fact that Portugal are a team that does rotate a lot with their team, Tatiana Pinto has been one of the player who has consistently been involved from the start, and with over 100 caps for Portugal as well she is a player that will be key in terms of having that experience of tournament football.
The 31-year-old has come up against a lot of quality opposition in her career and been one of the heartbeats of Portugal’s progress in international women’s football and they will be hoping that she can dictate things for them in Switzerland.
The midfielder is coming off the back of a good season as well at Atlético Madrid in Liga F after they finished third and qualified for the Champions League. She operates in the centre of that midfield for Portugal in front of that defence, trying to keep things compact and help the team stay organised while also driving them forward when needed.
Manager - Francisco Neto
Neto took charge of the Portugal women’s national team 11 years ago, leading them to their first appearances at a European Championships and at a Women’s World Cup. He has had a big part to play in their growth and also helping establish future developments as well.
One thing that he hasn’t achieved with Portugal though is getting them to the knockout stages at a tournament, and he will be hoping that Euro 2025 is where his team can break that streak. He’s made them a team that is tough to beat, often playing in a 3-4-1-2 formation and making sure that every player involved knows what their role is.
28 was the number of players that he used during qualification for this tournament with a lot of tactical flexibility coming into play as well, meaning he can utilise different ideas if needed. However, the expectation might be that given who they are up against in Group B, the team end up trying to be more of a solid defensive unit in making sure that they go about getting the necessary results.
How will they do?
Getting past the group stages is the ambition, but it is easier said than done in Portugal’s case. This is a challenging group that they are aiming to get out of, and due to the fact that they have faced two of the three teams in with them recently in the Nations League, we have seen an example of how they might fare against them.
Even before the Nations League, their record against Spain isn’t a very good one and the last meeting was a 7-1 hammering. They were beaten 3-0 by Belgium in their last competitive international fixture, so right now it’s pretty tough to see if they can get anything from this group.
The best thing they can do is try to be a cohesive side that is tough to beat and see whether they do have enough in them to pick up the points that they will require to progress to the knockouts. This feels like a tournament where they have to try and take the next step, but is the challenge of Group B going to stop that?