Portugal Should Enjoy Euro 2016 Win, but 2018 World Cup Qualifiers Will Be Tough

The red and green ticker tape has long since been picked up from the grass of the Stade de France and the streets of Lisbon, and so what now for Portugal?

Well, in short, rest.

Whatever your opinion of this Portugal team and their performances in winning Euro 2016, you can’t deny that the effort they put into winning the tournament means Fernando Santos’ men deserve a well-earned break over the next few weeks.

From Real Madrid to Southampton to Lille, whichever clubs these players belong to can’t expect to see them back quickly, and nor should they.

Santos deserves a bit of downtime, too. Even the grizzled, somewhat dour coach was reduced to jigging in delight once Eder fired that unstoppable and unexpected winner past Hugo Lloris in extra time. It was most out of character for a man who had barely smiled in the six matches before the final.

As you’ll have read elsewhere by now, his and Portugal’s triumph was one of organisation over inspiration, as a country traditionally renowned for producing creative, attacking forces achieved their finest hour thanks to much more rudimentary means.

Yet now they are European champions, they will become fresh meat for others to hunt, starting when the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers get under way in September.

There, Portugal have been placed in Group B, alongside Switzerland, Euro 2016 opponents Hungary, Latvia, Faroe Islands and Andorra. It's a fairly kind group on paper and one that doesn’t look to be providing too many obstacles on Portugal’s route to Russia in two years’ time.

But while qualification is more than achievable, Santos would be right to strike a note of caution with his players as they prepare for the battles ahead.

As the tournament they’ve just won has shown, the gap between the haves and the have-nots in international football seems to be narrowing all the time, with Euro 2016 an advert for just how far defensive organisation and a willingness to work hard can get you. Portugal are suddenly a scalp now, and their group opponents will see anything gained from them as a bonus.

You could say they might be about to become victims of their own success, and their group opponents will already be working out ways to better them.

The Swiss were disappointing in France, but they at least have players capable of producing the spectacular like Stoke City’s Xherdan Shaqiri, while Hungary almost knocked Portugal out of the tournament in the group stage during that remarkable 3-3 draw in Lyon. There would have been no Paris, no Eder and no jigging Santos if Cristiano Ronaldo hadn’t levelled the scores in the 62nd minute.

In addition to all this, there is the question of numbers.

With only nine automatic spots in Russia available for group winners and eight of the nine best runners-up going into the play-offs, that means only 13 of the 54 nations who’ll start the qualifying process will make it. Just over half of the sides that were in France, in other words.

There will be no bloated tournament here, but that only means it’ll be tougher for the established elite to make it.

Santos—the manager of Greece between 2010 and 2014—would have worked with plenty of the Greek players who, when reigning European champions in 2004, then went and failed to win any of their first three qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup, eventually finishing fourth in their group behind Ukraine, Turkey and Denmark.

His side don’t face the same level of opposition here, but they will have to guard against complacency if there isn’t to be an initial struggle or uneasiness about their next two years, which will also include Confederations Cup participation in Russia in 2017.

What Santos will value is that the core of his squad is still likely to be kept together.

Ronaldo shows no sign of slowing down for his country, and he’ll captain a squad in which plenty of young talents have just enhanced their reputations. The only two players in the Euro 2016 squad who probably won’t be there in Russia are Ricardo Carvalho and Bruno Alves, but the recent displays of Pepe and Jose Fonte in defence have shoved them to one side anyway.

Will Santos need to change tactics to make it to Russia? Perhaps, but they are likely to be more of an evolutionary move than a revolutionary one.

He’s got the crest of a wave to ride first, though, preferably on a relaxing beach somewhere.