On Friday, Portugal learned who its opponents in the 2022 World Cup group stage were. Fernando Santos' squad will reunite with old friends from each confederation (South America, Asia, and Africa).
Despite having little history with Uruguay, South Korea, or Ghana, Portugal has met each of these countries at World Championships.
Portugal's squad for the 2022 World Cup will be a mixture of youth and experience.
A small analysis of the teams and the direct confrontations with Portugal:
Uruguay: Two-time World Champion (1930 and 1950), the Celestial arrives at the 2022 World Cup in a remodeling phase. Oscar Tabarez, known as the maestro, left the team in the middle of a difficult qualifying and gave way to Diego Alonso, who led Uruguay to third place in the South American qualification. With a mix of experience (Muslera, Godin, Gimenez, Luis Suarez or Edinson Cavani), a new generation trying to assert themselves (Pellistri, Fabricio Diaz) and some well-known faces from the Portuguese public (the Benfica fan Darwin Nunez and the Coates lions) and Ugarte) is heavenly as largely responsible for eliminating Portugal in the last World Cup (1-2, in the round of 16). Moreover, the team from the corners added a draw (1-1, in the Independence Cup) and won once in 1966 (3-0), in a friendly in the antechamber of that World Championship.
South Korea: Fourth in 2002, South Korea is in the ninth consecutive World Cup and this time led by a former national coach, Paulo Bento. With Son-Heung-Min (Tottenham), the South Koreans have the main attacking figures with Hwang Hee-Chan (Wolverhampton) making a splash in England and Hwang Ui-Jo (Bordeaux) scoring in France. It will only be the second time that Portugal will face South Korea, and in 2002 they lost (0-1) in the last round of the group stage and were eliminated from the World Cup. A match that was also marked by Joao Pinto's aggression against referee Angel Sanchez.
Ghana: After reaching the quarter-finals in 2010, Ghana reaches this World Cup (it will be their fifth participation) after having drawn against favorites Nigeria. Led by Otto Addo, with two players playing in Portuguese football (Abdul Mumin from Vitoria de Guimarães and Abdul Fatawu Issahaku (Sporting), and a mix of talented youngsters (Felix Afena-Gyan, from Roma, and Kuddus, from Ajax) and established names (Jordan Ayew, from Crystal Palace, and Thomas Partey, from Arsenal) this is a team far from the quality of the past (they had a disappointing African Cup of Nations by losing to Comoros and Morocco), but which has already left its negative mark in the history of Portugal. In 2014, Asamoah Gyan's goal did not prevent the defeat against Portugal (1-2) but it was enough for the National Team to lose the tie with the United States and be eliminated.