As they hope to participate in their sixth straight EURO tournament, Portugal really have one man to thank for earning them two wins after an opening loss to Albania. Given that Cristiano Ronaldo also happens to be their all-time top scorer, they will certainly hope that this year's Ballon d'Or winner will again inspire them to victory as they seek to keep Albania at bay and remain in contention to qualify from their group.
The Selecção have only netted twice thus far in three games. It took quite a bit of effort to eke out slim victories over Denmark and Armenia, with the currrent squad skipper scoring late in the second half on both occasions. The hosts have met their visitors on two occasions prior, back in March and September 2007 in qualifying clashes for the EURO 2008, but were unable to find a way past each other and had to settle for 1-1 draws in both legs.
It has not been the best start to 2015 for his star player, but Portugal coach Fernando Santos recently attempted to downplay any concerns Cristiano's fans may have about a possible burn-out.
"[I am not worried about] Cristiano Ronaldo because all the players who come have a great motivation to play, to win titles," he stated to reporters earlier this week.
"The problem would be if he could not come to join the national team."
Meanwhile, Serbia have not begun their EURO 2016 aspirations under the best of circumstances. The Оrlovi (Eagles) started off with a decent 1-1 draw with Armenia before a meeting with Albania that, given the two countries' negative histories, ended prematurely due to crowd violence over a drone displaying a nationalistic Albanian flag.
As such, Serbia were awarded a 3-0 win as default, but due to a failure to control their home crowds, were docked three points, thus reducing their total to a dismal one out of two games. So whilst their official goal tally stands at five, in reality, like their upcoming opponents, they, too have only scored two times in their first trio of games.
They then faced Denmark, in which an early goal from Zoran Tošić was not enough to prevent the Scandinavian side from fighting back to defeat them 3-1, leaving them with a huge mountain to climb if they want to have any glimmer of hope at participating in next summer's tournament. Following the match last November, Chelsea duo Branislav Ivanović and Nemanja Matić did not mince their words when expressing their disappointment with their team's overall performance.
Radovan Ćurčić's men have quite a lot of work to do in Group I as they face off against Portugal
"We see ourselves as big stars [who] always think we are better than others and that's a very bad attitude [to have]," the Blues defender and national team captain stated following the game.
"The players are obviously unaware what it means to put on a Serbia shirt and play for the national team. This has been going on for years and we can't carry on like that."
Matić, his colleague at club level, added, "We are simply not good enough. We have to be realistic and adopt a 10-year plan like most top teams do. Belgium are a good example as they went through a long barren spell and are now one of the most feared teams in Europe."
The Balkan side have not qualified for a EURO tournament since becoming an independent nation and to date can only note the 2010 World Cup - in which they finished last in their group - as their sole international tournament.
Since shockingly losing to Greece back in the 2004 final, Portugal have endured frustration during their subsequent EURO tournaments thus far and will be really seeking to make amends for this by taking one step closer to booking their spot in France for next summer.
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