Portugal ultimately fail to qualify for Italia’90, losing out a place in the 1990 World Cup with two points. Where did it all go wrong?

Juca’s preparation for the qualification campaign had been a difficult one. With the start of his reign, reconciliation had begun after the disastrous Saltillo affair, but he had been given only one single friendly (v Sweden away) to prepare the team – far too little to assess his team selection or to make a new team blend. It is fair to say that Juca didn’t initially find the team selection he was happy with. Sweden away was also a strange choice since their first qualifier would be against Luxembourg at home: having spent the only friendly in a defensive mode and with Juca still unsure about his best side, the performance only yielded a 1-0 win. A disastrous result, it would turn out, as a poor goal difference made the final match against Czechoslovakia uninteresting. The suboptimal preparation did therefore perhaps contribute to Portgual’s verdict in this group.

From the match against Belgium (h), Juca’s team started to settle, usually consisting of a midfield trio and an attacking trio, resembling a lopsided 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 (one attacking winger plus one balancing wide midfielder), with some exceptions. This was a dynamic team that appeared to be well balanced and at times impressing in its swift attacking. Few teams in these qualifiers have shown themselves better at turnovers than Portugal, and perhaps no player excelling more in these situations than Futre.

While that encounter against Belgium in February 1989 saw the team settle, it also contained en episode that would haunt Portugal to the very end of the campaign. A later howler by Silvino gifted Belgium a point. A win would otherwise have put Portugal in the driver’s seat in the group. The result was followed by a comfortable win against Switzerland, ensuring that Portugal had 5 points from their three home fixtures so far.

Autumn 1989 started with three key battles away from home, where they crucially lost the two against their main rivals in the group, Belgium and Czechoslovakia. Yet, they were in both matches close to getting a result. They were eventually hammered 3-0 in Brussels, but again showed what a formidable threat they could be when breaking forward. In the end, their defence was heavily exposed – there had already been signs that the defence was not the best at organizing itself, and Belgium punished them relentlessly. As last time, a disappointing result against Belgium was followed by a good win against Switzerland, now with striker Rui Águas taking a more prominent role in the team.

More crucial, perhaps, was the defeat in Czechoslovakia, against what now proved to be the battle for the second qualification berth. Portugal played against 10 men for more than an hour, but succumbed to another sweet strike from Michal Bílek. You could even argue that Griga’s dismissal didn’t help Portugal, as a very cautious Czechoslovakia after that incident denied them the space which they needed to release Futre. Rui Águas was impressing in his lone striker role, giving Portugal the presence in the box which they at times had lacked, but as always the team seemed prone to let in goals.

There was a subdued end to their qualification campaign. They won by a three goal margin against Luxembourg (a), but the result between Czechoslovakia and Switzerland meant that Juca’s side would need to beat the former with four goals in the ultimate game. The decider never quite caught fire, ending in stalemate and 0-0.

How much separated Portugal from qualifying for Italia’90? Not too much, although this conclusion will suggest that Czechoslovakia maybe overall showed just a bit more quality than the Lusitanians. Juca possessed a very talented side and arguably found a good shape to the team already from his second game, which was an accomplishment given his difficult point of departure. Some of the attacking football showed by his team belonged to the top notch of European football, and Juca seemed to have found a good balance between work rate and balance, although they at times missed some presence in the box and firing power.

The real weakness of the team was the defensive structure – some good players, but they found it hard to organize themselves, and were punished by the good teams. Portugal only kept a clean sheet against Luxembourg and in the so-called decider against Czechoslovakia. There were certainly also individual mistakes to rue: Silvino’s error versus Belgium in February cost them a point, and Rui Barros missed no less than three glaring opportunities during the qualifiers. What if Rui Águas had been drafted into the team at an earlier stage? Even the very first match, against Luxembourg (h), was costly: the poor goal difference on the final day meant that they needed to beat Czechoslovakia with four goals. What if Juca had had time to prepare his team and soundly had beaten Luxembourg with f.ex. four goals?

Final position: 3 (out of 5)
Total record: 8 4 2 2 11-8 10
Home record: 4 2 2 0 5-2 6
Away record: 4 2 0 2 6-6 4

Player statistics

Number of players used: 29
Number of players including unused substitutes: 35
Ever-presents (720 mins): 2 (Silvino and Barros)
Leading goalscorer: Rui Águas 4
Yellow/red cards: 11/0

– overview

Player	Apps	XI	Sub	UnSub	Mins	Gls	Y/R
Silvino de Almeida Louro	8	8			720
Rui Gil Soares de Barros	8	8			720	1
Vítor Manuel da Costa Araújo “Paneira”	8	6	2		614	2
António Augusto da Silva Veloso	7	7		1	630		1/0
João Manuel Vieira Pinto	7	7			585	1	1/0
Adelino Carlos Morais Nunes	6	6			495		3/0
Pedro Manuel Regateiro Venâncio	5	5			450		1/0
Frederico Nobre Rosa	5	5		1	448	1	1/0
Paulo Jorge dos Santos Futre	5	5			421	1	1/0
Luís Fernando Peixoto Gonçalves Sobrinho	6	5	1	2	388		1/0
António dos Santos Ferreira André	4	4			360		2/0
José Rui Lopes Águas	5	3	2		346	4
César Gonçalves de Brito Duarte	4	3	1		267
António Augusto Gomes de Sousa	3	3		1	225
António Manuel Pacheco Domingos	2	1	1		119
Jaime Fernandes Magalhães	3	1	2	1	114
José António Ramalho Lima	2	1	1		109
António Henriques Fonseca Jesus Oliveira	2	1	1		92
Jaime Alves Magalhães	1	1		1	90
António Maurício Farinha Henriques Morato	1	1			90
Álvaro Monteiro Magalhães	1	1			90
Fernando Mendes Soares Gomes	1	1			90	1
José Orlando Vinha Rocha Semedo	1	1			90
Carlos Jorge Marques Caldas Xavier	1	1		1	90
António Manuel Tavares Fonseca	1	1		1	33
Jorge da Costa Ferreira	1	1		4	90
Pedro Alexandre Marques Caldas Xavier	2		2		64
Rui Manuel Trindade Jordão	1	1			45
Jorge Manuel Lopes da Silva	1		1		45
Adelino Augusto da Graça Barbosa Barros				8
Fernando Albino de Sousa Chalana				1
Fernando Manuel Antunes Mendes				1
Domingos José Paciência Oliveira				1
Miguel Alberto Fernandes Marques				1
Oceano Andrade da Cruz				1

– game by game

Player	Lux (h)	Bel (h)	Sui (h)	Bel (a)	Sui (a)	Cze (a)	Lux (a)	Cze (h)	Apps	Mins
Silvino	90	90	90	90	90	90	90	90	8	720
Jaime Alves	90		R						1	90
Sobrinho	90	90	90	90	1	27	R	R	5+1	388
Morato	90								1	90
Álvaro	90								1	90
Nunes	90	90	90		90	71	64		6	495
Vítor Paneira	90	86	90	61	89	63	90	45	6+2	614
Rui Barros	90	90	90	90	90	90	90	90	8	720
Fernando Gomes	90								1	90
Paulo Futre	90	61		90	90	90			5	421
Jordão	45								1	45
Jaime Magalhães	45			R	43		26		1+2	114
João Pinto		90	90	90	90	90	90	45	7	585
António Oliveira		90	2						1+1	92
António Veloso	R	90	90	90	90	90	90	90	7	630
António Sousa	R	90	45					90	3	225
José Semedo		90								90
António Pacheco		29						90	1+1	119
César Brito		4	90	90				83	3+1	267
Frederico		R	88		90	90	90	90	5	448
António André			90	90	90	90			4	360
Jorge Silva			45						+1	45
Pedro Venâncio				90	90	90	90	90	5	450
Carlos Xavier				90	R				1	90
Rui Águas				29	47	90	90	90	3+2	346
Lima						19	90		1+1	109
António Fonseca						R	33		1	33
Pedro Xavier							57	7	+2	64
Ferreira				R	R	R	R	90	1	90
Neno	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R
Chalana	R
Fernando Mendes		R
Domingo Paciência			R
Miguel				R
Oceano								R

– ratings

Pos	Player	Average rating	Number of rated games
1	Paulo Futre	7,28	5
2	João Pinto	7,05	6
3	Vítor Paneira	7,01	7
4	António André	6,90	4
4	Rui Águas	6,90	4
6	Rui Barros	6,88	7
7	Frederico Rosa	6,87	4
8	Pedro Venâncio	6,85	4
9	Adelino Nunes	6,84	5
10	António Veloso	6,83	6
11	Luís Sobrinho	6,80	4
12	Silvino Louro	6,62	7

Explanation to table: Number of rated games: 7. A player needs to have obtained a rating in half or more of the games in order to appear

Post-qualification