Belgium 0-0 Portugal

Portugal’s penultimate friendly match before the World Cup will have boosted optimism that Fernando Santos’s team can enjoy a successful tournament in Russia. After a shaky opening 15 minutes, Portugal more than matched a talented Belgium side in Brussels, holding the hosts to a goalless draw.

Without captain Cristiano Ronaldo, who joins the squad on Monday, a youthful Portuguese midfield and attack looked lively and enterprising. Perhaps even more significant, the veteran centre-back partnership of Pepe and José Fonte brought back memories of Euro 2016 with a rock-solid performance.

Portugal 2-2 Tunisia

The reigning European Champions got off to a flier in Braga this evening in the opening thirty-five minutes, thanks to goals from André Silva and João Mário. However, their dominance was unacceptably short-lived – and saw the North African side pull two goals back to hold Portugal to a disappointing two-two draw.

In stark contrast to their first half, Portugal were incoherent and were deservedly held to a draw by a largely inexperienced Tunisian side, with coach Fernando Santos making no attempt to hide his anger at the end of the ninety minutes. 

 The opening exchanges in this friendly encounter were by no means friendly and saw several rash challenges from both sides being flung in with little remorse. The Tunisians benefited from this substantially, creating a host of decent chances in the opening ten minutes of the fixture.

With the World Cup in touching distance and Portugal’s 23-man squad finalised, Seleção fans can at last start to ponder about Portugal’s starting eleven when the European Champions take to the field in Russia in a little over three weeks’ time.

With youthful talent and exuberance combined with several seasoned veterans of the game at their disposal, pin-pointing Portugal’s eleven is not as clear-cut as it once was, despite Fernando Santos’ reputation for being overly pragmatic and stubborn.

PortuGOAL looks at the possible formations and line-ups for the Seleção’s group stage matches of the 2018 World Cup.

Portugal coach Fernando Santos has named the 23 players who will be heading to World Cup Russia 2018 in representation of the European Champions.

He has picked thirteen of the players who participated in Euro 2016. Only six players ply their trade in their home country, and the most represented club is Sporting, contributing four members of the squad.

Rúben Dias is the youngest member of the squad having just turned 21, and the only player who has not debuted for the full national team, while Bruno Alves is the oldest, at 36 years of age (the same age as goalkeeper Beto but Alves is six months older). PortuGOAL brings you a brief profile of the Seleção players striving for glory in Russia.