Portugal is set to kick off their Euro Qualifiers 2024 campaign against Liechtenstein

One of the most important events that International Football will start on 23rd March will be the qualifying rounds for Euro 2024, beginning this first day on Thursday with several matches to be played. Portugal will take on Liechtenstein which will be one of the most outstanding events, a clash in which the Lusos want to start in a good way in an accessible group.

38-year-old Ronaldo-led Portugal is placed in Group J, which includes Slovakia, Liechtenstein, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland and Luxembourg as their opponents. The Group J encounter is slated to take place on 24th March(12:15 AM IST) at the Estadio Jose Alvalade in Lisbon.

After being eliminated from the 2022 WC by Morocco 1-0, the Portugal team intends to be successful in these new qualifiers, using most of the talented players who have already played for their country for a considerable time, but with some changes made.

The first and most notable is Portugal will be heading for this match with Roberto Martínez as the new coach of this team, a strategist who usually has great ideas to translate on the field, but who was not successful with the golden generation of Belgium. However, facing this group, Portugal is a great candidate to top the group, since they will have rivals who seem to be one step below them.

Portuguese star striker Ronaldo has been called up for the qualifying match and is expected to be included in Portugal’s starting lineup for this match. Ronaldo, a five-time Ballon d’Or winner was a central figure of the Portuguese unit that lifted the European title in 2016 after beating France in the final.

Although the Navigators indeed lost their last game at home, the number nine team in the World has won 4 of the 5 most recent official matches played in Portuguese territory, so they have a good chance of settling a good result this Thursday.

On the other hand, 198th in the International Football ranking, Liechtenstein seeks to transcend in these qualifiers considering that the most outstanding adversary of the group will be this rival that will be ahead on Thursday, although it also seems complicated for the side to face one of the top sides in Europe.

Nor is this place anything strange if one takes into account the results that have been settled, arriving this trip chaining 13 consecutive defeats. Even Liechtenstein's most recent match was against Gibraltar, another team lacking in all aspects that managed to score 2 goals. Liechtenstein only managed to score one goal in one of the last 13 games in which they have been defeated, figures that do not provide any hope for them in this clash against a country with great talents like Portugal.

Although they haven't played a match between them since 2009, on this occasion they have won 6 of the 7 duels held in their entire history.

Probable Playing XI:

Portugal (4-3-3): Diogo Costa; Joao Cancelo, Danilo, Antonio Silva, Raphaël Guerreiro; Ruben Neves, Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes; Joao Felix, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rafael Leo.

Liechtenstein (5-4-1): Benjamin Büchel; Seyhan Yildiz, Sandro Wolfinger, Marco Wolfinger, Jens Hofer, Lars Traber; Nicolas Hasler, Aron Sele, Simon Lüchinger, Sandro Wieser; Yanik Frick.