Portugal national under-21 football team
| Shirt badge/Association crest | |||
| Nickname(s) | Esperanças (Hopes) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Association | Federação Portuguesa de Futebol |
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| Head coach | Rui Jorge | ||
| Captain | Sérgio Oliveira | ||
| Top scorer | Hugo Almeida (16) | ||
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| First international | |||
 Portugal 3–1 South Africa  Lisbon, 16 November 1958 |
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| UEFA U-21 Championship | |||
| Appearances | 7 (First in 1994) | ||
| Best result | Runners-up in 1994, 2015 | ||
The Portugal national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team of Portugal and is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF). They are nicknamed "Esperanças." Esperança means hope, thus they are Portugal's hopes for the future.
Following the realignment of UEFA's youth competitions in 1976, the Portuguese under-21 team was formed. Until 1994, the team had a rather poor record, failing to qualify for each of the first eight UEFA under-21 Championships. Since 1994, the team has improved its record greatly, qualifying for five of the next seven tournaments, including the 2006 finals.
Having qualified for the 2006 tournament finals, UEFA announced that Portugal would host the finals in May and June. From 2007 onwards, host nations will be announced before the qualification stage and will not need to qualify.
Contents
Competition records
UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship
| Year | Round | Position | Pld | W | D * | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 to 1980 | Did Not Qualify | ||||||||
| 1982 | Did Not Enter | ||||||||
| 1984 to 1992 | Did Not Qualify | ||||||||
 1994 |
Runners up | 2nd | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 2 | + 5 |
 1996 |
Quarter Finals | 7th | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | - 1 |
| 1998 to 2000 | Did Not Qualify | ||||||||
 2002 |
Group Stage | 5th | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
 2004 |
Third Place | 3rd | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 11 | -2 |
| 2006 |
Group Stage | 6th | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | -2 |
 2007 |
Group Stage | 6th | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | +3 |
| 2009 to 2013 | Did Not Qualify | ||||||||
 2015 |
Runners up | 2nd | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 1 | +6 |
| Total | 0 Titles | 0/6 | 26 | 11 | 7 | 9 | 34 | 25 | +9 |
- *Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.
- **Gold background colour indicates that the tournament was won.
- ***Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.
Current squad
- The following squad was selected for the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification matches against Albania U21 on 12 November 2015 and Israel U21 on 17 November 2015.
Players born in on or after 1 January 1992 are eligible for the current 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifiers.
Caps and goals are correct as of 13 October 2015 after the game against Greece.
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Previous squads
Head coaches
| Manager | Period | Record | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matches | Won | Draw | Lost | GF | GA | GD | |||
| Jesualdo Ferreira |
1996-2000 | ||||||||
| Agostinho Oliveira |
2001-2002 | ||||||||
| José Romão |
2002-2004 | ||||||||
| Agostinho Oliveira |
2004-2006 | ||||||||
| José Couceiro |
2006-2007 | ||||||||
| Rui Caçador |
2007-2009 | ||||||||
| Oceano Cruz |
2009-2010 | ||||||||
| Rui Jorge |
2010- | ||||||||
Honours
- UEFA Under-21 European Championship: Runners-up 2015
See also
References
External links
- UEFA Under-21 website Contains full results archive
- The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation Contains full record of U-21/U-23 Championships.
- (Portuguese) Official site
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