Portuguese coach Fernando Santos said on Sunday that Portugal is “favourite” in Group J qualifying for Euro2024 football, in Germany, but is focusing on Qatar’s World Cup, which starts in November.
“[Otimista?] Yes, Portugal is clearly the favourite, but let’s not think about that. Let’s think about the World Cup,” said the coach in Frankfurt just after the draw, which placed Portugal in Group J, with the national teams of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Liechtenstein.
Santos also immediately considered the draw as “atypical”, as “at the moment we would be discussing the issue of the European Championship and the qualifiers, but we have the World Cup” and therefore “the focus must be on the World”.
“This is the first competition we are going to play and not qualifying. [para o Europeu], as would be natural and normal. The most important thing now is the World Cup. This lottery, I’m going to put it in the suitcase and I’m going to forget it. I won’t think of him until January,” he assured.
The Portuguese national football team will face Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Liechtenstein in Group J of the Euro2024 qualifying round, the draw in Frankfurt dictated this Sunday.
In addition to Luxembourg for the third time in a row in a qualifying phase (Euro2020 and World Cup 2022), Portugal will also once again meet two opponents it faced on its way to Euro2012, namely the Bosniaks and Icelanders.
Slovakia (Euro2000) and Liechtenstein (Euro1996 and Euro2000) are also old acquaintances, bearing in mind that both have faced the corner team in previous qualifiers.
The top two of the 10 groups qualify directly for the Euro2024 finals and join host country Germany. The remaining three places will be decided via a ‘play-off’, to be played in March 2024.
The European qualifying round for the next UEFA European Championship will take place between March and November 2023 and the ‘play-off’ is scheduled for March 2024.
Euro2024 will take place from June 14 to July 14, 2024 in Germany.
Source: DN
