Football

Portuguese football, since it is a relatively small country in terms of population, has come to be dominated by what are called the "big three": Benfica, Sporting and Porto.

To give you an idea how dominant they are the Portuguese championship has only been won by a team outside the big three twice: by Boavista during the 2000/2001 season and by C.F._Os_Belenenses during the 1945/1946 season. Despite this domination by just three clubs UEFA considers the Portuguese league the sixth strongest in Europe. Portugal is renowned for producing footballers with skills to rival the best of Brazil and Latin America, as the videos on the various club pages here shows.

Although Portugal have only qualified four times for finals of the FIFA World Cup; 1966, 1986, 2002 and 2006, they have made the most of their appearances finishing third and fourth one time each.

The first appearance saw them reach the semi final, losing 2-1 at Wembley to the eventual world champions England. Portugal finished in third place and their star, and one of the greatest players of all time, Eusébio was considered the best player of the tournament.

The next two times Portugal qualified for the World Cup were 1986 and 2002, with Portugal going out in the first round both times after surprise defeats to Morocco, United States and South Korea. In the 1986 tournament, players went on strike over prize-money and refused to train between their first and the second games. In 2004 Portugal as hosts made it to the final of Euro 2004 (The European Championships), where they lost to Greece, and to their second World Cup semi final in 2006, where they lost to France. The Portuguese were unable to equal Eusebio's 1966 third place finish as they lost to hosts Germany 3-1 on July 8 in Stuttgart, finishing in fourth place in the 2006 World Cup.

The Big Three

Benficais the most successful Portuguese side domestically and has the second best European record after Porto of Portuguese football teams. You can learn more about Benfica and watch video of them in action here.

FC Portois the second most successful Portuguese side domestically after Benfica, but has the best European record of Portuguese football teams. You can learn more about the illustrious history and great players of Porto here.

Sporting CPis a team that has won almost a third of all domestic championships, but if it is possible to call such a successful team an underdog then Sporting, within the big three, is an underdog. Because they draw slightly smaller crowds then their two more successful domestic rivals they are often stripped of their talent by the richer clubs in England, Spain and Italy. For instance Cristiano Ronaldo was taken from Sporting by Manchester United. You can learn more about Sporting here.