Portuguese debut Category

Experience will be a key factor for Portugal at their first EURO ever.
Portugal surprised everybody when they qualified for the EURO. The Lusitanian squad have beaten Poland.Last weekend, the Portuguese squad took part at a four-nation tournament in France. Although they finished fourth, Portugal played good matches against France (28:28) and Spain (23:25). Back player of Portugal, Alexandrina Barbosa received an MVP award at the tournament.Juliana do Espirito Ferreira de Sousa played in Madeira, Ferrobus (Ribarroja), Metz, Valencia (Sagunto) and Brasov. The 31-year old is the most experienced player of the Portuguese team. She says:“My team improved a lot recently. We have a young team that deserve to take part at the European Championship. We work hard and I am convinced that the results will come soon.”De Sousa is aware that Group C will be tough:“Our group is a big challenge for us. Spain and Ukraine have great experience on international level and Norway are Olympic champions. So it will be a very difficult group. Our goal is to go on from the first round and after that to get as far as possible.”Seabra: gaining experienceThe captain of the Portuguese squad, Ana Seabra, has drawn a balance after the “Ille de France” tournament in Paris:“It was an interesting tournament for us. We gained confidence and we will play better if we learn from these games. In fact, we were able to improve during the tournament, which is a good sign.”The coach of the team, Paula Castro, gave the chance to all the players to reach top form. Ana Seabra was happy with this: “We are more experienced now, because all the players could try themselves against these top European teams.”

By: Ivan Ambros and Fernando Urra Goni