DBasia.news – Six years ago, the Portugal national team won the 2016 European Cup which was held in France. Portugal won the final against the hosts with a score of 1-0 and won the European title for the first time.
However, when the event turned into a World Cup, Portugal’s best achievement was third place in 1966, or the year when England won. Portugal are not always the favorite to win, but they have Cristiano Ronaldo.
The 37-year-old megastar will always be in the spotlight wherever he plays. The 2022 World Cup in Qatar could be his last, although some time ago he said he wanted to play until the age of 40 and play at the 2026 World Cup.
The Portuguese national team are in the last group of Group H along with Uruguay, South Korea and Ghana. Who has Fernando Santos called up to the Portugal squad?
Goalkeeper
The position of the main goalkeeper will be occupied by AS Roma goalkeeper, Rui Patricio. The 34-year-old goalkeeper has 104 caps and that is already above the two other names Santos brought in, namely Diogo Costa (Porto) and Jose Sa (Wolverhampton Wanderers).
Costa and Sa are substitutes for Patricio, but in terms of experience it doesn’t help much because Costa has only got 7 caps and Sa hasn’t made his debut at all.
Defender
Ronaldo is not the oldest player in the Portugal national team as Santos also brought in a 39-year-old defender, Pepe, who is currently defending Porto. Pepe is one of the defenders brought to Qatar besides Danilo Pereira, Raphael Guerreiro, Ruben Dias, Joao Cancelo, Nuno Mendes, Diogo Dalot and Antonio Silva.
Judging by these names Portugal clearly has a good defense and the right balance, both in terms of experience and also the quality of defending and playing offensively.
Midfielder
Bernardo Silva and Bruno Fernandes will be the creators of Portugal’s attack in the midfield. The quality and experience of both are needed by Portugal to last as long as possible at the 2022 World Cup.
Apart from the two of them, the other names that were called were William Carvalho, Joao Mario, Ruben Neves, Joao Palhinha, Matheus Nunes, Otavio and Vitinha.
Attacker
From the beginning it was challenging for Portugal to have a pure centre-forward like Pauleta or Nuno Gomes, but what is unique is that they have never run out of wing attackers. Ronaldo was originally a winger who then transformed into a center forward.
Ronaldo will lead Portugal’s front line and the other attackers brought by Santos are Andre Silva, Joao Felix, Rafael Leao, Ricardo Horta and Goncalo Ramos.