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Coach Fernando Santos said Thursday that he could do without some players in particular with Spain, due to the duels he will have with France and Sweden next, counting for the football of the Nations League.
“We will not relativize the game against Spain. The team that I understand will play, bearing in mind, of course, that four days later there is a game in France for the League of Nations. The game with Spain does not give points, the game with France already does. With Spain we can make six substitutions, which also allows us to manage the players, ”said Fernando Santos.
The national coach spoke at a press conference at the Cidade de Futebol, in Oeiras, in which he announced the squad for the three games that Portugal will have in October.
Even so, with Spain I expect an excellent match with two teams that like to play and have a lot of quality, “he added.
On October 7, the European champions face Spain at the José Alvalade Stadium, in Lisbon, followed by two games counting for Group 3 of League A of the Nations League. Four days later, the national team, which won the first edition of the competition, returns for the first time to the Stade de France since winning Euro2016 to face France and, on October 14, they play again in Alvalade against Sweden.
In this game window, Fernando Santos returned defender Rubén Semedo (Olympiacos), midfielder William Carvalho (Betis) and forwards Daniel Podence (Wolverhampton) and Rafa Silva (Benfica), having left defender Domingos Duarte (Granada) out. , midfielder André Gomes (Everton) and forward Gonçalo Guedes (Valencia).
“I understood that at this moment and, taking into account the matches that we are going to have, it made sense to call these players by their characteristics. Those who were left out have the same quality, there is no doubt about that. Portugal not only has a lot of 20, 30 players selectable. There are more, “said the 65-year-old.
With three games in a week, Fernando Santos admitted that there will be little time to train and explained that the main concern of his technical team will be to get the players to recover “physically and mentally” before each game.
“We are already used to the little time there is to train. It is difficult in such a short time to implement the strategy for each game. The main plan is the recovery of the players and that I and my technical team have done very well,” he concluded.
Portugal leads Group 3 of League A of the Nations League with six points, equal to France, although it has an advantage in the number of goals scored. Sweden and Croatia remain at zero.
Goalkeeper: Rui Patrício, Anthony Lopes and Rui Silva
Defenses: João Cancelo, Nélson Semedo, José Fonte, Pepe, Rúben Dias, Rúben Semedo, Mário Rui and Raphael Guerreiro
Means, medium: Danilo, Rúben Neves, William, Bruno Fernandes, João Moutinho, Renato Sanches and Sérgio Oliveira
Advanced: Podence, Rafa Silva, André Silva, Bernardo Silva, Cristiano Ronaldo, Diogo Jota, João Félix and Trincão
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