Portugal’s midfielder Bruno Fernandes admitted his team had quality to win the FIFA World Cup. Roberto Martinez’s team came into the quadrennial event as one of the favorites because of their strong midfield but they could not bring their best.
Nuno Mendes, João Neves and Vitinha were instrumental in taking PSG to Champions League glory whereas Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes was named Premier League Player of the year. However, their performances in the quadrennial tournament was not up to the mark.
“There’s no point in talking about it now because we’re out of the World Cup, but it was a missed opportunity,” Manchester United captain Fernandes said after the game.
“Every opportunity is a missed one because when we reach a World Cup, everyone wants to win. We’re no different — it’s been the same in every World Cup Portugal has participated in — but it was a missed opportunity.”
Portugal had also won the UEFA Nations League in 2025 and had a lot of quality in their squad.
“I know Portugal has never won the World Cup and that we always set our expectations very high, but I think I can say with some certainty that this team had the quality to win the World Cup,” Fernandes said. “We have a great team. I’m sure we had the quality to go further.”
Fernandes admitted they were knocked out by one of the best teams in the tournament.
“Obviously, we were eliminated by a great team — we lost to one of the favorites to win the World Cup, just as we were ourselves,” Fernandes said. “The overall assessment can’t be positive — it would only be if we’d made it to the end, and we didn’t.”
The midfielder admitted they weren’t able to play to their potential in the showpiece event and thus it led to their downfall.
“Perhaps we weren’t able to get the best out of everyone in the best way possible, and we ended up being eliminated very early on,” Fernandes stated.
“But we shouldn’t lose faith. We lost to one of the top contenders, and we need to look ahead with a different mindset. I think we have to be more true to ourselves, tap into what we have inside, try to play more in our own style and our own way, and find a way to make other teams respect us more.”
Portugal’s manager, Roberto Martinez, has also parted ways with the team.
