Defender Pepe has been excluded from the Portugal squad due to injury and will miss the games against Liechtenstein and Iceland in the Euro 2024 qualifying round, the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) announced this Sunday.
“The player suffered a muscle injury in Porto’s match on Saturday in Guimarães and will not be able to contribute to Portugal’s games against Liechtenstein and Iceland,” read a statement published on the FPF’s official website.
According to the same note, national team coach “Roberto Martinez will not call up another player to replace Pepe”, so the Portuguese national team now has 25 players instead of 26.
Pepe was injured in the second half of Porto’s Ligue 1 match with Vitoria Guimaraes on Saturday and was replaced by Fabio Cardoso in the 67th minute.
This is the second Portuguese team to suffer in just a few hours, as on Saturday the FPF announced the release of Nelson Semedo, also due to injury, and the Wolverhampton defender is being replaced in the options by Raphael Guerreiro from Bayern. Munich.
Rafael Lean is a doubt and is also expected to be released from the Quinas team due to a right thigh muscle injury sustained against Lecce in the Italian league on Saturday.
The gathering of the 25 players called by coach Roberto Martinez is scheduled for late Monday afternoon at the Cidade do Futebol, in Oeiras.
The national team will face Liechtenstein on Thursday at 19:45 (Lisbon time) in Vaduz, and three days later at the same time with Iceland at the José Alvalade Stadium.
Portugal leads Group J with 24 points, eight more than second-placed Slovakia, with Luxembourg third with 11. Iceland is fourth with 10 points, ahead of Bosnia and Herzegovina with nine and Liechtenstein in last with no points. .