An ‘Iberian derby’ looms on the nearest horizon. If Spain beats Austria next Thursday in Inglewood and Portugal does the same, the same day, against Croatia in Toronto… the last European champion and the last winner of the Nations League will compete for a ticket to the quarterfinals. It would be July 6, in Dallas. But that, of course, is advancing events… and the protagonists themselves know it.
No Portuguese wanted to talk at the Hard Rock Stadium about facing Spain. Neither does the Spaniard from the Portuguese team: Roberto Martínez. “The team is fully prepared for the next game,” the Balaguer coach simply responded. Luka Modric’s Croatia is enough of a headache for Portugal.
The team is fully prepared for the next match
Colombia 0-0 Portugal 2026 World Cup Summary
“Ideally? We have to play against any team, we have to fight with any team. A World Cup is always very difficult, you have to respect all the teams.Now Croatia matters. “We are going to win and that is what matters,” he responded. Diogo Costa, MVP of the duel with Colombia, when we asked her about finishing second in the group and going on to the, in theory, more complicated path.
The ideal? We have to play against any team, we have to fight with any team
And the point of view always has a lot to do with it: Portugal can face Spain in the round of 16… but avoids a hypothetical quarterfinal match with Argentina. A question of perspectives, as always. It was clearer Samú Costa, who debuted in the World Cup by entering the second half in the last game of the group stage. Not even his proximity to Spanish football made him fall into the trap: “Now it’s time to recover and focus on Croatia.” Nothing more, nothing less.
Now it’s time to recover and focus on Croatia
Joao Felix, who has settled in the eleven, displacing Bernardo Silva who did not even add minutes against Colombia, maintained the speech of his teammates: “All roads are difficult, we are in the World Cup. Sooner or later you end up facing great teams. “Sixteenths, eighths, fourths… whenever it is, we are ready.”
All roads are difficult, we are in the World Cup
Now, since yesterday Sunday, “a different World Cup” has started, as Roberto Martínez defends. A maximum of 120 minutes that can decide the football destiny of a country. And so on… four times until reaching the grand final on July 19. “We are still together,” Cristiano Ronaldo explains on social media. Portugal is going step by step.
