Can Portugal emulate Euro 2016 success in Russia?

After the vastly experienced Portugal side were surprise winners of Euro 2016, their ageing squad is tasked with weaving in the next generation of Portuguese stars into this new look squad.

THE GROUP STAGE

They face Spain in a grudge match on the opening match day, before playing Morocco and Iran.

If Portugal are to advance through the group, which I think they will, they will have to at the very least avoid a damaging defeat to rivals Spain.

Spain themselves were the holders at the previous WC, but after being hammered by Holland, were dumped out after just 2 matches after losing to Chile.

I think Portugal have enough quality to win both of their remaining fixtures, and could introduce youngsters such as Ruben Neves and Diogo Jota, both of whom have enjoyed successful seasons and Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Sky Bet Championship.

Cristiano Ronaldo adding a World Cup to his vast trophy collection would help his hand in the argument of who is the 'GOAT', but I don't think they'll go all the way, because of their lack off squad depth and weakness in defence.

Jose Fonte, Pepe and Bruno Alves and are all in their mid-30s. As well, they have all left their teams that where playing in either the top 5 leagues(Fonte, Pepe), or left a team playing European football (Alves) .

In midfield Andre Gomes hasn't lived up to expectations and Barcelona, neither has Joao Mario at Inter, but Bernardo Silva has made a fast start to his short Manchester City career.

If Silva can hit top form at the World Cup then he and Ronaldo could have a big say on how far they go, but in terms of squad depth they are lacking.

If they were to finish second in Group B, they would face the winner of Group A, could that be an Egypt side led by Mohamed Salah? Or the experienced Uruguay side?

If they reach the Quarter Finals that is where I think they will exit, although who knows in football?