On Friday evening, Portugal’s national women’s team face Czechia in the first leg of the playoff for Euro 2025. The match will be played at the Estádio do Dragão. The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) has already announced the game is sold out, meaning that the record for the most attended women’s match in Portugal will be smashed.
It is the latest sign of how women’s football continues to grow in popularity and prestige in Portugal. And the female Seleção are desperate to continue their upward trajectory by qualifying for a third consecutive Euro.
Women’s football has been growing fast in recent years. There are several reasons for that. First and foremost, the increased funding governments and clubs around the world are providing to help it develop.
Another reason for its growth has to do with the over-tactical game that is played in men’s football. Tactical games, even though they can be absorbing from an analytical point of view, can be boring. Women’s football is a much more physical game, a much more disputed game. It is closer to the original essence of the sport, which is all about passion and competition.
We can argue that the game is slower due to the difference in biological features between men and women, but the passion displayed on the pitch is much more realistic. And large sections of the football-loving public is missing this passion and is turning to women’s football, not to mention new audiences who have been taken in by female football.
Moreover, much of the unpleasant traits associated with the men’s game owing to over-commercialisation and the obscene amount of money involved – a win-at-all-cost attitude, feigning injuries, abusing referees, etc. – are completely absent from women’s football, and as such, from this perspective at least, it can be considered a purer form of the sport.
In Portugal, women’s football is at the peak of its growth. FC Porto created (finally) this year a professional women’s team, competing in the third tier. This represents the embracing of the complete affirmation of women’s football in Portugal, but from a practical point of view it also shows that the clubs see it as a profitable and viable version of the sport.
Porto are expected to rise up to the top tier in two years, where it can bring a huge boost to women’s football in the country, particularly in the northern region where Famalicão and Braga are currently the only teams capable of going toe to toe with the perennial favourites from the capital Benfica and Sporting.
The investment has to be solid, and the FPF has made strenuous efforts to promote the sport by organising and marketing the national competitions, investing in the facilities and conditions provided for Portugal’s women’s teams at senior and all youth levels, and encouraging more girls to take up the game at grass roots level.
Portugal women have been steadily improving in quality over the last few years. In 2017 the female Seleção qualified for their first ever European Championship, and followed that up by reaching the next one in 2022. And in 2023 Portugal qualified for their first ever FIFA Women’s World Cup, putting in a commendable performance, not lease by drawing 0-0 against the reigning World Champions at the time, USA, and only failing to knock out the Americans by the width of the post.
The playoff against Czechia is seen as must-win to keep up the positive progress, and because the truth is Portugal just has the better team: Kika Nazareth, who Barcelona recently signed, Jéssica Silva, now playing in the USA, and Tatiana Pinto, who plays for Atletico Madrid, are among the main threats for Czechia women.
Being the better team brings some responsibility. Will Portugal, buoyed by the huge crowd, aim at a more passionate, heated and whole-hearted match to conquer their opponents? Or are we going to rely on possession, organisation and a higher level of technical proficiency?
Given the occasion, you have to opt for the passion game. You cannot stymie the team and its best players (like Kika) by sticking too rigidly to a system that does not give them the freedom to find space and express themselves. Play with passion, play it like you mean it and give Portugal a one-way ticket to glory along with the best national teams in Europe.
Navigators, take us to Euro 2025!
