As a continent with such a wealth of excellent footballing nations there will, inevitably, be a few so-called ‘big boys’ 
from Europe who don’t make the final tournament in South Africa in 2010. One nation that is in very real danger of being such a casualty is Portugal. They may not be the most decorated or respected side in Europe but they made it through to the semi-final stage of the last tournament in 2006 and have some talented players amongst their ranks, not least Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo.
Portugal currently lie third in the FIFA World Cup European Qualifying : Group One Table and trail leaders Denmark and Hungary by seven points with just five games to play. In the European qualifying tables, the top team from each of the nine groups automatically qualifies, with the eight highest runners-up going into four play-off matches, the winner of each play-off will earn a place in South Africa.
Portugal currently have just six points from five games and have won only once, drawing three and losing one. Even if they do finish second in the group there is also a reasonable chance they could have acquired the lowest number of points and would therefore miss the play-offs, but this is a bit too hypothetical to get into at the moment so I’ll just stick to what is going on right now.
Basically Carlos Queiroz, the head coach of Portugal, has got a tough job on his hands and he will need close to maximum points from his next five fixtures. The five games which will determine whether we see Cristiano Ronaldo and co line up in South Africa are as follows – Albania, Denmark and Hungary away followed by two final home games against Hungary and Malta.
The games against Albania and Malta look like easy wins and I doubt many would consider backing the Albanians or the Maltese to get anything out of Portugal with their international football betting. However, their problem has been drawing too many games and if they slip up against either of these two sides the task in front of them will be very difficult, indeed the Malta game could prove fatal as it is their last qulaifier! The game against Denmark and the two against Hungary are the very definition of ‘must wins’ for Queiroz as he has a fairly daunting seven point gap to close and only five games to do it in.
With five games to go it isn’t all over for the Portuguese but they’re going to have to win at least four of their last five to make the final tournament in South Africa. Inevitably there will be some heavyweight casualties from Europe, with the Czech Republic and Turkey also looking in danger of missing the main event. At the moment it looks a very real possibility that South Africa 2010 will be missing the skills of the likes of Ricardo Quaresm, Jose Bosingwa, Simao Sabrosa, Miguel Veloso and of course Cristiano Ronaldo.
