Having won a major tournament for the first time in their history, Euro 2016 champions Portugal have elevated themselves to the upper echelons of the footballing world, and as such the pressure will be on them to qualify for the World Cup in two years.

The last country to have been surprise champions of Europe were Greece in 2004, but they subsequently missed out on qualifying for the World Cup in 2006 and the Portuguese will be keen to avoid such an embarrasing repeat. Fernando Santos’ side begin their campaign with arguably the toughest game they are a likely to face in Group B, travelling to Basel to take on a Switzerland side with a formidable home record.

The Swiss have only lost one World Cup qualifier at home since 2001, while England are the only team to have won a European Championship qualifier in Switzerland since 1995. If those statistics make for frightening reading for the Portuguese then the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo from their side will further decrease their chances of starting with a win.

Source: goal.com

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