Portugal Women

The Portuguese women's team historically was one of the weakest in Western Europe since its formation. In recent years however the team has made major strides, qualifying for the newly expanded UEFA Women's Euro 2017, marking the team's first appearance in a major tournament. Despite ultimately finishing last in their group, the team put in a respectable performance, picking up a win in their second match against a Scottish side which had been favored to beat them, and only losing to England by one goal.

After finishing a distant third in their qualifying group for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup behind Italy and Belgium and failing to qualify, the Portuguese team then looked forward to trying to repeat their achievement of four years prior by qualifying for UEFA Women's Euro 2022, which they eventually did under quite unusual circumstances. After a strong group stage campaign in which Portugal won all its games except for the two games against group winner Finland, including beating the heavily favored top seed Scotland both home and away, the team reached the play-off stage where they were drawn against Russia. The team came agonizingly close as they narrowly lost the first game in Portugal 0–1 before managing a goalless draw in the second leg in Russia. As a result Russia originally qualified for the Euro, but due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine all Russian representative teams were banned from competition by FIFA, thus giving Portugal a reprieve as they took Russia's place in Group C of the Women's Euro. Portugal is placed in group C with Sweden, the Netherlands and Switzerland as opponents. They were eliminated in the first round, finishing last with a point obtained thanks to a draw against Switzerland (2–2 after being 0–2 down and having dominated the game overall), and two defeats against the favorites of the group (a close one 2–3 against the Dutch title holders after having recovered a two-goal handicap for a while, then a much heavier defeat 0–5 against Sweden).

Portugal qualified for their first World Cup at the 2023 edition after beating Cameroon 2–1 at the International Playoff Final. They were placed in group E, with the United States, the Netherlands, and Vietnam. They finished third in the group stage, winning against Vietnam, drawing with the USA, and losing to the Netherlands, and we're eliminated from the competition.