I know Luxembourg wasn’t our idea of a solid tune up going into the final stretch of Euro qualifying games where our place is anything but assured, however this friendly is more important than most. Its been over two months since our national team played together, the last being the huge 1-0 win over Norway, and it will take some time to gel. Playing against a sub par team might be what we need at this point. Paulo Bento didn’t pick almost the exact same line up by accident, so his main goal is obviously to build team cohesion. Luckily our guys haven’t sustained any injuries, so Bento can pick about the exact same team that he has chosen for the last few games which is awesome. I’m not saying that it is good that we are playing an average team at best, but I think it will boost our confidence with a convincing win at Algarve later today.
Another added attraction to this friendly is the fact that Luxembourg was drawn into our World Cup 2014 Qualifying group. This means of course that we will have two very important games against them over the next 3 years and it doesn’t hurt to get a head start and become familiar with our group F foes.
As for the squad Bento called up, I suspect the same XI as usual.
Perierra—-Carvalho—Pepe—-Coentrao
Micael—-Meireles—-Moutinho
Ronaldo—-Postiga—-Nani
It is very interesting to me that Real Madrid has used Coentrao almost always in the midfield during the preseason and that Fabio has played great there. I’m not saying its time to shake up the Sellecao line up now, but the truth is I think Coentao would greatly out perform Martins or Micael in the last midfield spot. Then I would put Nelson or Sivio in at left back, who are both good options. Postiga will get the start most likely, but Nuno Gomes very well may come on as a substitute to see if he can capture some of the magic we know he possesses. Varela and Bruno Alves will also probably get a look as the game advances.
And no, I didn’t forget about the goalkeeper, but I have mixed feelings here. Eduardo has moved back to Benfica over the offseason and he has been playing behind Artur. If Eduardo cannot get onto the field week in and week out there is no doubt his spot is in jeopardy to Rui Patricio. I think Rui will get the start today, but both will probably get 45’ of action.
As for the gameplay goes, I expect an easy 3-0 victory. I don’t know too much about Luxembourg, but they will probably defend hard and counter when they can, so we will need to have some decent strings of play to score. Forca Portugal!!
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