Coach Roberto Martinez announces Portugal’s squad for the start of the Football Nations League on Friday, a list that should confirm Cristiano Ronaldo’s continuity but is expected to see a few changes.
The Spanish coach’s choice, his first since participating in Euro 2024, where Portugal reached the quarter-finals, will be announced at a press conference at 10:30 a.m. at the Cidade do Futebol in Oeiras.
Even at 39 years old and after the European Championship, where he was “empty”, captain Cristiano Ronaldo will remain in Roberto Martinez’s options, as he publicly confirmed recently, and will be present for the matches against Croatia and Scotland.
However, the national team coach will have to make some changes to his selection, starting with Pepe, who retired after Euro 2024, and striker Goncalo Ramos, who is injured and will miss the entire Nations League group stage.
In goal, Rui Patricio, who currently plays for Atalanta despite having spent the entire pre-season without a club, may miss out on a call-up, although he will always have the ‘weight’ of being the most prolific goalkeeper in Portuguese football.
Danilo had no minutes at Paris Saint-Germain and could have ‘fallen’, just like Joao Cancelo, who is now at Jorge Jesus’ Al-Hilal, who also did not play in pre-season.
Exactly a year ago, Cancelo found himself in exactly this situation, but Martinez retained his choice of defender.
Matheus Nunez, who was underused at Manchester City, and Francisco Conceicao, who lacked rhythm and is now at Juventus, could also be absent.
Otavio, who missed Euro 2024 through injury, is virtually guaranteed to return, in a list that could also see debuts and returns.
Pedro Goncalves and Trincao have made a great start to the season at Sporting and could be part of Martinez’s options this time around, with the Blues defender Renato Veiga recently having good things to say about him in an interview.
The fourth edition of the Nations League will begin with the Portuguese side welcoming Croatia to the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon on 5 September, before facing Scotland at the same stadium three days later, with both games kicking off at 19:45.
Portugal won the inaugural Nations League in 2019 but then failed to reach the Final Four in 2020/21 and 2022/23.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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