Portugal cannot slip up this Tuesday if they do not want to get into trouble in their attempt to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. They will be without Diogo Jota, who has not trained with the rest of the group because of a muscle injury and he has left the Portugal camp to return to Liverpool.
Fernando Santos announced that he would decide whether the player remained on the bench against Luxembourg or, on the other hand, whether he would leave the national team and travel to Liverpool to keep on recovering with his club. The decision ended up being the latter.
Portugal have played five of their eight World Cup qualifying matches and only the top team from each group automatically qualify. The seconds make the play-offs.
The Portuguese are second on 13 points with four wins and a draw, which was against Serbia, who are top with 14 points. However, the Serbs have played a game more.