A weakened Portugal will be looking to clock up a fifth consecutive Euro 2012 qualifying group H victory, at the Estádio do Dragão against Iceland on Friday.
For almost a year after Paulo Bento took over from Carlos Queiroz as the head coach of the Selecção things went swimmingly. The exciting and fast-passing football that has come to be associated with Portugal returned, positive results were immediate, and the players showed they were 100% behind the new man in the hot seat – in stark contrast to his predecessor, Queiroz, but that’s another story.
So it came as a huge surprise when one month ago Ricardo Carvalho, erstwhile considered the archetypal model profession, reacted to being dropped from the team by storming out of the training camp and promptly announcing his international retirement.
Mutual recriminations between Carvalho and Bento of ‘lack of respect’, ‘a deserter’ and ‘a mercenary’ brought an unedifying end to a brilliant international career. Bento has said Carvalho, holder of 75 caps for Portugal, during which time you could count the number of mistakes he made on one hand, will never play for the Selecção again while he is in charge.
All this means the string of injuries that have forced Fabio Coentrão, Pepe, Sílvio and Hugo Almeida out of the Iceland game, along with Danny’s withdrawal for personal reasons leaves Portugal a considerably weaker team than they were five short weeks ago.
Rolando will resume his former FC Porto partnership with Bruno Alves at the heart of the Portuguese defence, but the gap left by Coentrão’s withdrawal is more difficult to overcome, especially given that his natural replacement, Sílvio, is also ruled out. An adapted solution will therefore be employed by Bento, with one of Eliseu, Miguel Veloso or Ricardo Costa filling in. João Pereira will continue at right-back, given Bento’s perplexing decision to continue to ignore the resurgent José Bosingwa.
The only other doubt is who will play alongside Raúl Meireles and João Moutinho in midfield. Ruben Micael in the favourite having made a positive impact there in recent games. The forward line will consist of Ronaldo and Nani on the flanks, with Hélder Postiga in the centre.
Despite the re-jigging of what had become a settled side, Portugal would expect to get the better of Iceland, who have mustered just one win, against group whipping boys Cyprus, and four points from their seven games so far, especially as the islanders have injury problems of their own to contend with.
“We will approach this game as we have approached our previous four: needing the victory and nothing else,” said Bento. “We want to create good offensive dynamics and not allow the opponents to make use of their most dangerous weapons.”
Not that Bento is expecting an easy ride: “We’d do well to remember that we’ll be playing against a team that in the games away against Norway and Denmark only lost in the final minutes. We are optimistic and confident, but at the same time we have respect for our opponents who will create a lot of problems for us.”
Kick-off is at 9.00 pm local time at the Estádio do Dragão, Porto.
So it came as a huge surprise when one month ago Ricardo Carvalho, erstwhile considered the archetypal model profession, reacted to being dropped from the team by storming out of the training camp and promptly announcing his international retirement.
Mutual recriminations between Carvalho and Bento of ‘lack of respect’, ‘a deserter’ and ‘a mercenary’ brought an unedifying end to a brilliant international career. Bento has said Carvalho, holder of 75 caps for Portugal, during which time you could count the number of mistakes he made on one hand, will never play for the Selecção again while he is in charge.
All this means the string of injuries that have forced Fabio Coentrão, Pepe, Sílvio and Hugo Almeida out of the Iceland game, along with Danny’s withdrawal for personal reasons leaves Portugal a considerably weaker team than they were five short weeks ago.
Rolando will resume his former FC Porto partnership with Bruno Alves at the heart of the Portuguese defence, but the gap left by Coentrão’s withdrawal is more difficult to overcome, especially given that his natural replacement, Sílvio, is also ruled out. An adapted solution will therefore be employed by Bento, with one of Eliseu, Miguel Veloso or Ricardo Costa filling in. João Pereira will continue at right-back, given Bento’s perplexing decision to continue to ignore the resurgent José Bosingwa.
The only other doubt is who will play alongside Raúl Meireles and João Moutinho in midfield. Ruben Micael in the favourite having made a positive impact there in recent games. The forward line will consist of Ronaldo and Nani on the flanks, with Hélder Postiga in the centre.
Despite the re-jigging of what had become a settled side, Portugal would expect to get the better of Iceland, who have mustered just one win, against group whipping boys Cyprus, and four points from their seven games so far, especially as the islanders have injury problems of their own to contend with.
“We will approach this game as we have approached our previous four: needing the victory and nothing else,” said Bento. “We want to create good offensive dynamics and not allow the opponents to make use of their most dangerous weapons.”
Not that Bento is expecting an easy ride: “We’d do well to remember that we’ll be playing against a team that in the games away against Norway and Denmark only lost in the final minutes. We are optimistic and confident, but at the same time we have respect for our opponents who will create a lot of problems for us.”
Kick-off is at 9.00 pm local time at the Estádio do Dragão, Porto.
