Kev, I'm no football fan, so I don't follow teams and tend only to watch the big internationals. Every nation has its sob stories, every one thinks "we wuz robbed" - the second "Hand of God" against Ireland, Germany's loss in '66. Equally, there are the weird ones - Greece winning the Euros in Lisbon in 2004, etc., etc. The problem with the England team, any England team, is the ridiculous expectation, they are either sh*t or they are the best ever, no in-between. Normally they fail to meet that expectation and.......
From what I've seen, I don't think the Portuguese team has the quality to extend their Euro win (but they have Ronaldo), Spain are disappointing but still there, Argentina have a lifeline, Brazil have something to prove - Croatia were very strong and compact. Hard to call.
On another level, the invincible, super, world-beating Rugby team (pre 6-Nations) failed to win and have had a run of poor results ..... if they lose to South Africa today the tour will be a whitewash and the post-mortems will be bloody. Ireland have just beaten Australia to take their series 2-1 and win the Lansdowne cup
(not without controversy over the refereeing) but after they lost the first game in the series, there was a determination to come back, not calls for Schmidt to be sacked as trainer.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/44558938