Since there were fewer teams and only group winners were in final tournaments, qualifying was super hard back then. 1 defeat and "we need the calculator" as we usually said here lol Portugal usually finished 2nd. That doesn't say much about the squad overall quality since, funny thing, the only bad qualifications were the 1970 and 1982 for the world cup, but in 1970 we had a brilliant Minicopa in Brazil, with 6 wins in 8 games and only lose to the hosts in the final 0-1, and beating again the Soviet Union. And they did a brilliant tournament here in 84. In other words, Portugal was better then in final tournaments than in qualifiers, and far better against stronger teams than the weaker ones. Another important factor for the team lack of mentality and focus was the amateurish of the Federation, so well seen in 1986 in Mexico.