Slovakia v Portugal, Group J of the European Championship qualifiers in Germany, scheduled for Friday 7 September at 21:45 at the Tehelne Pole in Bratislava, will be broadcast live on Digi Sport 2 and Prima Sports 1.

Slovakia and Portugal, the two leaders of the rating and favorites for qualification, will meet in the derby of the group, the “double” between them will most likely determine the order of the first two places at the end of the qualifying tournament for Euro 2024. .

In Group J, apart from Portugal (10 points) and Slovakia (8 points), Luxembourg is in 3rd place (7 points), followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina (3 points), Iceland (3 points) and Liechtenstein (0 points). and all teams played four matches each (the first two places advance to the final tournament in Germany).

Slovakia made a poor start to these qualifiers, 0-0 at home to Luxembourg, but recovered to win three in a row: 2-0 at home to Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2-1 to Iceland and 1-0 to Liechtenstein, both away, so they best positioned to fight for 2nd place as Portugal remain heavy favorites to win Group J.

Slovakia, coached by Italian Francesco Calzona, has qualified for the European Championship only twice – in 2016, when they managed to pass the group stage, and in 2020.

Portugal have won four in as many matches without conceding a goal: 4-0 against Liechtenstein (a), 6-0 against Luxembourg (d), 3-0 against Bosnia and Herzegovina (a) and 1-0 against Iceland (d). and Cristiano Ronaldo is the group’s top scorer, aged almost 39, with five goals.

The Spaniard Roberto Martinez, the manager of the Belgian national team for the past six years, who replaced Fernando Santos after the final tournament of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, remained on the technical bench of the Lusitanians.

Portugal has a rich history in European finals tournaments, being a finalist in 2004 (0-1 in the final with Greece) and the winner of the trophy in 2016 (1-0 after extra time in the final with France).

The two teams have met four times in history, and Portugal have beaten Slovakia three times, with one game ending in a draw (the last official meeting was in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers, when the Lusitanians won at home and drew away).

Probable teams

Slovakia: Dubravka – Pekarik, Shkrinyar, Vavro, Hanchko – Duda, Lobotka, Kutska – Suslov, Bozhenyk, Mak.

Portugal: Costa – Dalot, Antonio Silva, Ruben Diaz, Cancelo – B. Fernandez, Palignha, Vitina – Bernardo Silva, C. Ronaldo, R. Leao.

Superbet offers odds of 1.45 on prediction 2: victory of the visitors in the match Slovakia – Portugal.

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