Portugal at the FIFA World Cup take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final. Portugal have appeared in the finals of the FIFA World Cup on seven occasions, the first being in 1966 where they reached the semi final. Eusebio's nine goals at
History of the FIFA World Cup hosts in a first-round match that eliminated Colombia. The total attendance for the tournament of nearly 3.6 million remains the biggest in World Cup history. Oleg Salenko of Russia became the first player to score five goals in a single World Cup finals game in his country's 6–1 group stage win over Cameroon. In the same match, 42-year-old Roger Milla scored the only goal for Cameroon, becoming the oldest player ever to score in a World Cup match. Hristo Stoichkov shared the Golden Boot as the joint top goal scorer in the tournament with Oleg Salenko (six goals), as well