This Tuesday, Portugal will face Finland in what will be the first “test” for Roberto Martinez’s side as they prepare for Euro 2024 football. A match with four confirmed losses, including Cristiano Ronaldo and Pepe.
The national team captain, like Ruben Neves, finished the season in Saudi Arabia only last Friday and were allowed to return later, joining the Portuguese delegation on June 7.
Pepe is also weak against the Finns, but due to physical problems the same thing happens with Nelson Semedo.
Matheus Nunez, brought in to replace the injured Otavio during training camp, was not present at any of Portugal’s training sessions (he was only called up on Monday afternoon) and is also expected to miss his return to Alvalade, where he represented Sporting for four seasons ( he is currently at Manchester City).
This will be the 11th meeting between Portugal and Finland, with the national team winning the last two meetings 2-0 in 2011 and 1-0 in 2009 after a heavy 4-1 defeat at the Bessa Stadium in 2002 year. All these meetings were private.
Portugal have recorded five wins, four draws and one defeat against the Scandinavians and bounced back from a 2-0 defeat to Slovenia in March, particularly after qualifying for Euro 2024 with only one win.
The Finns, who will miss the competition in Germany, were third in qualifying Group H behind Denmark and Slovenia respectively, but had another opportunity in the play-offs, losing 4–1 to Wales.
The Portugal-Finland match will take place at 19:45 at the José Alvalade Stadium in Lisbon. The judge will be Romanian Cristian-Petru Ciochirca.
Before heading to Germany, the country that organizes the European Championship, the Portuguese team will also meet Croatia (8 June, at the National Stadium) and Ireland (11 June, in Aveiro).
At Euro 2024, Portugal will play in Group F along with the Czech Republic (June 18, in Leipzig), Turkey (June 22, in Dortmund) and Georgia (June 26, in Gelsenkirchen).
Euro 2024 will take place from June 14 to July 14.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Tifany Hawkins, a professional journalist with years of experience in news reporting. I currently work for a prominent news website and write articles for 24NewsReporters as an author. My primary focus is on economy-related stories, though I am also experienced in several other areas of journalism.