Fernando Santos has named his squad for the upcoming friendly matches, with Marseille centre-back Rolando’s inclusion the major surprise.The former Porto centre-back has 19 caps for Portugal and was part of the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012 squads, but the 32-year-old last played for the Seleção four years ago. Other noteworthy call-ups are Wolves midfielder Rúben Neves and Inter Milan right-back João Cancelo.
Portugal play their first two friendlies of 2018 in Switzerland next week, taking on Egypt on Friday 23 March in Zurich, and the Netherlands the following Monday in Geneva.
“This is clearly a more difficult task than putting together the Euro 2016 squad,” explained Santos. “Is this close to the final World Cup squad? I can’t say that. Two years ago, in our friendly matches at this stage the squad was much closer to the final Euro 2016 squad. I’d say this squad is about 70% the final World Cup squad.”
The 63-year-old manager was at pains to say the door has not been shut on anybody. “There are players who were selected for the last friendlies (in November) who aren’t on this list, but who may, depending on what happens (injuries, etc.), be in the World Cup squad.”
Santos was asked specifically about his selection of André Gomes, who spoke about his difficulties at Barcelona earlier this week, and players who have seen little time on the pitch this season, such as Adrien Silva and André Silva.
“One of the purposes of the call-ups is also to assess the psychological well-being and confidence of the players, although we have to remember the environment here is different to at their clubs,” he replied. “This is an opportunity for me to judge what shape the players are in. Obviously, I’d prefer all the players to be playing every week at the clubs.”
As for the choice of opponents, both next week and in Portugal’s other pre-tournament friendly matches (Tunisia, Belgium and Algeria), Santos said: “Like before Euro 2016, we have tried to arrange opponents who are as similar as possible to the teams we’ll be facing in the tournament.”
Full squad
Goalkeepers: Rui Patrício (Sporting), Anthony Lopes (Lyon), Beto (Goztepe)
Defenders: João Cancelo (Inter), Bruno Alves (Glasgow Rangers), Rolando (Marseille), Cédric Soares (Southampton), José Fonte (Dalian Yifang), Rúben Dias (Benfica), Raphael Guerreiro (Borussia Dortmund), Fábio Coentrão (Sporting)
Midfielders: João Moutinho (Monaco), Bernardo Silva (Manchester City), Bruno Fernandes (Sporting), João Mário (West Ham), André Gomes (Barcelona), Manuel Fernandes (Lokomotiv), Rúben Neves (Wolves), William Carvalho (Sporting), Adrien Silva (Leicester)
Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), André Silva (Milan), Gelson Martins (Sporting), Gonçalo Guedes (Valencia), Ricardo Quaresma (Besiktas)
Article update
In the days following the squad announcement Rúben Dias, Fábio Coentrão and William Carvalho dropped out of the squad due to injury. Luís Neto and Mário Rui were called up to replace the centre-back and left-back respectively. No replacement was called up for Carvalho.
By Tom Kundert
