Martinez Guides Portugal World Cup Squad Into 48-Team Unknown
Portugal world cup squad is heading into a World Cup Martinez described as a leap into the unknown. Roberto Martinez said the expanded 48-team tournament across three countries brings conditions Portugal have to handle, not just talent to lean on.
Martinez and Portugal
“We’re talking about going into the unknown,” Martinez said in an interview in Lisbon. He added: “Forty-eight teams means a longer period. You need to have incredible resilience. You don’t prepare for iconic moments — you prepare the team to perform under any circumstances.”
Portugal arrive after a flawless qualifying campaign and a Nations League title, but Martinez put that form in a narrower frame. “Anything we’ve done until now just gives you three games in a World Cup. It doesn’t give you anything,” he said. “You arrive at the World Cup, you’ve got three games in a group phase, and everything starts there and then.”
Three countries, one test
Martinez has already studied the logistics from inside Fifa’s technical study group, observing the Club World Cup in the US last year. His focus was on the practical drag of the tournament itself: “The complexity of playing with different time zones, of playing with the heat, the humidity, and almost moments of uncertainty when you get the storms,” he said.
He also pointed to how different teams may handle the trip across the US, Canada and Mexico. Some will prefer one familiar base camp; others will move closer to match cities. He contrasted that with Russia’s long travel demands and Qatar, where teams could stay in one hotel and travel little.
Belgium lessons for Martinez
Martinez is speaking from experience. He led Belgium at the 2018 World Cup and again in 2022, and in 2018 his team beat Brazil in the quarterfinals before losing in the semifinal and winning the third-place playoff.
That semifinal defeat still shapes the way he talks about the tournament. “Losing a semifinal is somebody taking, ripping your heart away from the dream of being in a cup final,” he said. For Portugal, the warning is simple: the old certainties end once the group phase starts, and the expanded format only widens the gap between preparation and the reality waiting in North America.
