Portugal rewrote Italy's fairy tale in 1982

With the Euro 2016 championship, the Portuguese football team almost completely recreated Italy's fairy tale at the 1982 World Cup.

At Euro 2016, Portugal’s path to the championship was a rare one in football history. In the group stage, the team drew all three matches and finished third. If it weren’t for the rule change that was implemented from this year’s tournament (4/6 third-placed teams in the group stage qualified for the next round), Portugal would have been eliminated early.

Portugal was underestimated when they passed the group stage. Photo: Reuters

Ronaldo and his teammates started to improve from the knockout stages. In a smooth and dramatic journey, Portugal eliminated Croatia with an extra-time goal in the round of 16, beat Poland on penalties in the quarter-finals, beat Wales 2-0 in the semi-finals, before winning the title by overcoming France with another extra-time goal in the final.

Portugal's path to the championship is somewhat similar to Italy's in 1982.. At the World Cup 34 years ago, the Azzurri also drew all three matches in the first group stage (advancing in second place). In the second group stage, Italy surprisingly finished first after beating defending champions Argentina (2-1) and Brazil (3-2). The Azzurri then defeated Poland 2-0 in the semi-finals, before defeating West Germany 3-1 in the final.

The common point between the two fairy tales is that both teams "transformed" at the right time. Portugal beat host France even though Cristiano Ronaldo was injured and had to leave the field in the 24th minute of the final, while Italy regained their traditional strength after being lucky to get through the group stage.

Italy won the 1982 World Cup.

The biggest difference between the two teams is tradition. While the 1982 title was Italy's third World Cup and their fourth major title in history (counting Euro 1968), Euro 2016 is Portugal's first major title. Before that, their best result was reaching the final of Euro 2004 on home soil.

According to VNE