How far can Portugal go without winning a World Series? Portugal narrowly broke the record, and the answer lies in the Copa America

The World Series is a good opportunity for the national team to show their strength, and many fans have also fallen in love with some stars through the tournament and have become fans of a certain team in the future. In the World Championship, because the competition is really limited, there are many times when there are some very fortuitous situations, such as in the 1992 European Championship, the Danish team was the last to come to the table but took all the cake and finally won the championship. And in 2004, the Greek team, which was completely unfavorable, also relied on tenacious defense to finally win the European Cup.

It is precisely because of the relatively large chance in the World Series that there will be all kinds of upsets, and this is actually one of the biggest charms of football. And how far can we go in a tournament without a win? In fact, this almost happened in a tournament that was not far from us, with a particularly high level of attention.

The 2016 European Championship can be said to be a European Cup for Ronaldo to realize his dream, the Portuguese team went all the way to the final, and at the last moment, they defeated the host France to win the Delaunay Cup with the help of substitutes.

However, in fact, in this European Cup, Portugal's performance is not good, in the group stage, Portugal's group situation is still quite good, whether it is Iceland, Hungary or Austria is not the top team in Europe. But even in such a group, Portugal played poorly, in the first two rounds of the group stage, Portugal were tied by Iceland in the lead, and then contributed a 0-0 game against Austria.

In the last round of the group stage, the Portuguese team fell behind three times and was on the verge of going out several times, and Ronaldo used one goal after another to help the team finally finish third in the best four groups, and finally qualified from the dangerous group, which can be said to have not won a game. However, Portugal's qualifying results are not actually the worst in the previous tournaments.

In the 2005 World Youth Championship in the Netherlands, the Japanese team managed to finish second in the group with 2 draws and 1 loss and two points in the group stage. Benin, like Australia and Japan, lost to hosts the Netherlands. However, the three teams were tied again, and in the end they could only compete for goal difference. This is arguably the lowest score that can be scored to qualify from the group. Below two points, there is almost no chance of qualifying from the group.

Portugal, on the other hand, have not won a few knockout games since they qualified from the group. Portugal only beat Wales in the semi-finals in regulation time, but it also saw Portugal miss out on that record, and they came close to becoming the only team to win a tournament without a win in regulation time.

In the quarter-finals, they beat Croatia in extra time, and in the quarter-finals, they eliminated Poland on penalties. In the final, the team also battled against France, and it was only after extra time that Ed broke the deadlock.

What is the best result that a team can achieve without a win in a regular time in a major tournament? In fact, there is a reference in football, and that team is Paraguay.

With only 12 teams competing in the Copa America, both third-placed groups could qualify for the group, with Paraguay, who were in a group with Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador, finishing third in the group stage with three draws. In the knockout round, they faced Brazil in their group, and they drew 0-0 again, and finally Paraguay eliminated Brazil on penalties.

In the semi-finals against Venezuela, Paraguay did the same, and this South American team with a particularly good defense ended up with their opponents 0-0, and in the penalty shootout, Paraguay successfully advanced 5-3. In the final, facing Uruguay, who had two great strikers, Paraguay was unable to resist and won the runner-up with a 0-3 defeat.

In this Copa America, Paraguay did not win a game in regular time, and even only scored in 2 games, and the two opponents in the knockout round played against them in the group stage, just like that, Paraguay still won the runner-up of this Copa America, it can be seen that this ancient event, because of the restrictions of various subjective and objective conditions, was really quite chaotic at the time.

However, the next Copa America will be held in the United States, and the number of teams will be 16, which is obviously more reasonable. It's hard to have another winless game like Paraguay's