They may be 7th in the official FIFA world rankings, fairly prolific in front of goal, and be in possession of some of the best young talent in Europe - but Big Phil Scolari has his work cut out if Portugal are going to triumph this summer, because the ‘Selecção das Quinas’ were officially the most wasteful side during the Euro 2008 qualifiers. Indeed, spearheaded by the mesmeric Christiano Ronaldo (who seems to fire shots wide on the international level for fun) – they smashed a total of 112 shots wide, to their 24 goals scored. More than anyone else during the qualifying campaign - 99 more indeed than Andorra (although that should probably be compared to Andorra’s *ahem* total 2 goal haul).

And for the team who only just scraped in past Serbia and Finland to stutter to Euro 2008 qualification second to Poland in their group, it seems that their undeniable hotbed of talent are going to have to focus! Indeed, according to the stats on the CPI – only 2 Portuguese players made their respective top 20’s during qualifying (let alone making the form 4-4-2 pictured below). Ricardo rated the 16^th best goalkeeper and Maniche statistically the 8^th best midfielder in the campaign so far.

Of course – it would take a brave man to write off tournament’s traditional dark horses but Portugal (who are currently attracting odds of around 8/1 on the betting exchanges), look like poor value at those odds – unless our Christiano can find his bright orange shooting boots of course!