LISBON — Roberto Martinez has seen enough World Cups to know they are more a travelling circus of heat, humidity, penalties, bad bounces and sudden storms than a series or certainties.
After leading Belgium in 2018 and 2022, for Portugal’s manager, this year’s tournament may be the wildest ride yet.
Speaking to Reuters in an interview in Lisbon recently, Martinez said Portugal’s impressive momentum led by an ageless Cristiano Ronaldo would count for little once the tournament begins, with the expanded 48-team World Cup across three countries presenting a leap into the unknown.
“We’re talking about going into the unknown,” Martinez said. “Forty-eight teams means a longer period. You need to have incredible resilience… You don’t prepare for iconic moments — you prepare the team to perform under any circumstances.”
Portugal arrives with belief after a flawless qualifying campaign and a Nations League title, but Martinez was quick to douse any temptation to confuse form with entitlement.
“Anything that we’ve done until now just gives you three games in a World Cup. It doesn’t give you anything,” he said. “You arrive at the World Cup, you’ve got three games in a group phase, and everything starts there and then.”
Martinez had the chance to observe the Club World Cup in the United States last year as a member of FIFA’s Technical Study Group, an experience he described as essential for understanding what Portugal may face.
The lessons were not merely tactical, but meteorological, logistical and psychological.
“The complexity of playing with different time zones, with playing with the heat, the humidity, almost moments of uncertainty when you get the storms,” he said.
“There are many aspects that are very, very different how the game is played under those circumstances than what we do in Europe.”
He also studied how teams used base camps, with some preferring one familiar hub and others moving closer to match cities.
“We’ve gone from the complexity of the preparation to make it to an opportunity to use our experience with our preparation,” he said.
Martinez knows the World Cup’s geography can shape a campaign. He contrasted Russia, with its vast distances, with Qatar, where teams could stay in one hotel and travel little.
The Spaniard has lived both the thrill and cruelty of World Cups. With Belgium in 2018, he beat Brazil in a quarter-final he said carried an “enormous psychological barrier”, then suffered the agony of losing a semifinal before regrouping to win the third-place playoff.
“Losing a semifinal is somebody taking, ripping your heart away from the dream of being in a cup final,” he said.
Those scars inform his view that World Cups are not won simply by the prettiest football.
“A World Cup is something that you’re never prepared to be successful. It’s almost you have to find a way in that journey,” Martinez said. “The opponent plays a part, what happens in the game plays a part, luck plays a part.”
Asked about Carlo Ancelotti’s view that the most resilient team often wins rather than the best, Martinez agreed.
“The difference will be a penalty shootout, a good decision in the final third, a bit of luck that the ball hits a post and it goes in or hits a post and it goes out,” he said.
“In a World Cup, you need to have sometimes attributes that are not related to talent. It’s the team values, that resilience, that knowing how to suffer.
Portugal has the talent, he said, but 2026 will test their adaptability as much as their technique.
“The margins are minimal,” Martinez said. “With 48 teams and three countries, the margins are going to be even smaller.”
