Nigeria: Portugal Building Confidence 2010 World Cup Success

opinion

Portugal may well have got all its World Cup 2010 panic out of the way already. Having given its supporters a succession of nervous moments during the qualifying campaign, it was presented with a tough old draw when the 32 teams were matched in Cape Town back in December.

Both looked a lot worse at the time they happened. Carlos Queiroz's men expertly negotiated an awkward-looking play-off against Bosnia-Herzegovina in November, and its supposed rivals for second place in Group G, the Ivory Coast, has seen it all go wrong for them in 2010 - exiting the African Cup of Nations in the quarter-finals, scrabbling around for a new coach before settling on Sven-Goran Eriksson, and now possibly losing talismanic captain, Didier Drogba, at least for the group opener in Port Elizabeth.

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