Slovenia-Portugal is a friendly and is played Tuesday at 8:45 p.m.: news, stats, likely lineups, predictions, live TV and streaming.
It only knows how to win Portugal since Spaniard Roberto Martinez, coach of the Lusitanians for a year now, sits on its bench. Since March 2023, Cristiano Ronaldo and his teammates have won 11 games in a row, including, of course, last Thursday’s win in the friendly against Sweden, which was swept 5-2 in Guimaraes despite the absence of CR7, who stayed for a few days on vacation with his family.
against the Scandinavians, Portugal once again demonstrated its offensive power: only on two occasions in the Martinez era has it scored less than two goals. In addition to Milan’s Leao, Bruno Fernandes, Matheus Nunes, Gonçalo Ramos and Bruma also shone, the latter one of the evening’s happiest notes.
Awaiting more probing tests – in the qualifying round that Portugal overcame there were no major pitfalls – it will be important to extend the winning streak, with the goal of arriving in the best condition at the upcoming European Championships, where the Lusitanians will play the role of outsiders as usual. Martinez, however, will change quite a bit against Slovenia in Ljubljana, likely sending out those who did not play against Sweden. Ronaldo returns but so do the various Dalot, Cancelo, Danilo Pereira, Otavio, Ruben Neves, Vitinha and Joao Felix. For the Slovenians, it is the third friendly match of 2024 after those against the USA and Malta: in the past week, Matjaz Kek’s men did not go beyond a draw with the modest selection from the Mediterranean microstate (2-2), in any case picking up their third consecutive useful result since November to date.
The prediction
Slovenia is one of the 24 teams that will participate in the upcoming European Championships and in the group it will face Serbia, Denmark and England. Against a modest representative such as Malta, Kek’s men last Thursday did not excite, which is why it is hard to imagine them being able to stop the unstoppable Portugal, fresh off eleven wins in a row. Lusitanians favored in a match of at least three goals overall.
The likely lineups for Slovenia-Portugal
SLOVENIA (4-4-2): Oblak; Balkovec, Bijol, Drkusic, Stojanovic; Mlakar, Kurtic, Cerin, Horvat; Sesko, Sporar.
PORTUGAL (3-5-2): Rui Patricio; Dalot, Pepe, Antonio Silva, Cancelo; Danilo Pereira, Ruben Neves, Vitinha; Otavio, Cristiano Ronaldo, Joao Felix.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 1-3
