yes Portugal is not a bad team, but their star icon is experiencing a very significant decline in performance. and it seems, it becomes a serious problem for Fernando Santos to maximize his troops later in the Qatar world cup.
As for the host of the world cup, Qatar is quite confident, but it is difficult for them to qualify for the next round. because after all, there is a very difficult Senegal for them to overthrow.
as well as the Netherlands which recently they are in a pretty solid performance even without the support of many star players.
Croatia, will still be one of the strong challengers because after all they are runners up for the 2018 world cup.
Lewandowski, Poland is in a pretty tough group. at least, they have to subvert Mexico, then draw against Argentina. however, it seems that scenario is difficult.
only counting the days we will welcome the performance of this most prestigious championship event.
It's always strange to see some "big" nation not qualifying for some big competition. But it happens. It happened to England few cycles ago when they didn't qualify for the World Cup or Euro. I'm not sure which one was it, but I remember them not qualifying because Croatia defeated them in London.
Since I'm from Croatia, I can comment about what I think our chances are in Qatar. It will be really hard for Croatia to repeat what happened in Russia. I'm not saying we don't have a chance, but it will be hard. We have some young players that have potential, but we will see how they'll perform under pressure.