The Portuguese men’s national table tennis team made history on Sunday (September 28) by winning the country’s first-ever European Team Championship title with a 3-1 victory over favourites Germany.
Marcos Freitas, João Monteiro and Tiago Apolónia are the national heroes of Portugal’s success story and were able to break Germany’s incredible streak of six consecutive gold medals since 2007.
The surprise win came in front of a home crowd of around 2,000 – including Prime Minister Passos Coelho – at the Meo Arena in Lisbon.
The first match put Marcos Freitas and German rival Steffen Mengel head to head, with the Portuguese table tennis star putting his country in the lead with three straight games (11-8, 11-8 and 11-8).
Germany quickly fought back, with World no. nine Timo Boll defeating João Monteiro also in three straight games (11-7, 11-1 and 11-8).
From then on, however, Portugal wouldn’t slip up again.
Tiago Apolónia took on and beat World no. four Dimitrij Ovtcharov by 3-1 (11-7, 11-2, 11-13, 11-9), leaving Marcos Freitas to round up matters with a 3-1 win (12-10, 5-11, 11-6, 11-9) against Boll.
Tears and joy ensued amongst the crowd, players and coaches while the Portuguese anthem played in the background.
Pedro Rufino, the national team’s coach, admitted that it was a tough but memorable day for his athletes: “We suffered a lot, but we found a way. These players are strong physically and mentally; they deserve to be European Champions.”
Despite the win, Rufino stayed humble and acknowledged that it was a case of ‘David beating Goliath’: “If we played against them (Germany) again tomorrow, they would still be the favourites.”
Many congratulatory messages have been sent to the Portuguese national team, including by Portugal’s President Cavaco Silva and football star Cristiano Ronaldo.
Photo: Portugal’s João Monteiro in action
