Spanish Roberto Martinez decided to rely on veteran Cristiano Ronaldo in his first squad as coach of the Portuguese national team, succeeding Fernando Santos, after he included the Saudi Al-Nassr striker for the matches against Liechtenstein and Luxembourg in the start of the 2024 European Cup qualifiers.
On Friday, Martinez said, during his announcement of the squad, that the 38-year-old is “very important to the national team,” adding, “I don’t look at age.”
Portugal begins its campaign in Group X competitions next Thursday against Liechtenstein in Lisbon, before traveling to Luxembourg three days later.
And the former Belgium coach considered that the first squad is “important because it is the starting point” towards qualifying for the European Cup scheduled for the summer of 2024 in Germany.
Ronaldo, who began his international career in August 2003 in a friendly match against Kazakhstan, holds the record for the number of international goals (118), and he is expected to strengthen it if he participates in the first two matches for his country in the qualifiers for the tournament that won its title in 2016.
Portugal faced Liechtenstein seven times, winning six and drawing in the other, scoring 35 goals against its opponent against three in its own net, but Ronaldo did not score any of these goals, unlike his record against Luxembourg, where he scored nine goals (his highest number against one team) from Out of 59 for his country in 19 meetings between them (Portugal won 17 of them and lost one).
Ronaldo represented Portugal in every international tournament since the 2004 European Cup, and at the World Cup in Qatar at the end of last year he became the first player to score in five world finals, but the adventure ended in tears at the hands of Morocco, who excluded “Seleção” Europe from the quarter-finals.
Lineup:
For the goal: Diogo Costa (Porto), Jose Sa (Wolverhampton, England), and Rui Patricio (Roma, Italy).
Defence: Diogo Dalo (Manchester United), Joao Cancelo (Bayern Munich), Nuno Mendes and Danilo Pereira (Paris Saint-Germain), Pepe (Porto), Robin Dias (Manchester City), Antonio Silva (Benfica), Goncalo Inácio ( Sporting), Diogo Leite (Union Berlin, Germany), and Rafael Guerrero (Borussia Dortmund, Germany).
Midfielders: Joao Balenia (Fulham, England), Robin Neves (Wolverhampton, England), Bernardo Silva (Manchester City), Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United), Joao Mario (Benfica), Mateus Nunich (Wolverhampton), Ottavio Montero (Porto), Vitinha ( Paris Saint-Germain).
For the attack: Cristiano Ronaldo (Saudi victory), Gonzalo Ramos (Benfica), Joao Felix (Chelsea, England), Rafael Leao (Milan, Italy), and Diogo Jota (Liverpool, England).
