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2026 World Cup: How one year in Motherwell made Portugal boss Martinez

Martinez also had to deal with relegation at Wigan, a sacking at Everton and a shock World Cup group exit with Belgium before resigning in 2022.

Would any of those have hurt as much as being made redundant as a player? Well, it has certainly played a part in his resilience as a coach.

The Portugal boss, who is out of contract this summer, is again overseeing another crop of world-class talent with huge expectancy.

Martinez has lost just six his 40 games since being appointed in 2023. Portugal won the Nations League last summer, beating Germany in the semis and Euro 2024 winners Spain in the final.

Can that be translated to the World Cup? They were eliminated by France in the quarters of the Euros two years ago but travelled to the United States with one of the strongest squads in the competition.

Ruben Dias, Joao Cancelo and Nuno Mendes are among their defensive options. Then there are midfielders Joao Neves, Vitinha, Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva, plus Cristiano Ronaldo, Pedro Neto and Rafael Leao in attack.

Failure to reach the latter stages would feel like another missed opportunity for Martinez and his elite-level squad and they will look to improve on the opening Group K draw with Congo when they face Uzbekistan on Tuesday (18:00 BST) then Colombia.


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