Portugal vs Luxembourg Preview

Portugal will welcome Luxembourg to the Estádio Algarve this Monday for the Fifth Round of the 2024 European Championship qualifiers.

The hosts come into this tie in supreme form, having not tasted defeat since the inception of the qualifiers. They have won four times in five games, impressively doing so without conceding a goal while scoring 15 times.

Their incredible record has left them sitting comfortably at the summit of Group J, five points ahead of Slovakia who they beat 1-0 in their last outing. With talisman Cristiano Ronaldo booked in the win over Slovakia and unavailable for this game, coach Roberto Martinez will hope others will step up at home where Portugal have won their last three home games ‘to nil.’

The hosts have also won in all nine home H2Hs against Luxembourg without conceding, making this an arduous task for the visitors on paper.

However, Luxembourg travel to the Algarve in strong form, overcoming a poor winless start to their qualifiers (D, L1) by winning their last three games. That is already a record for the European minnows, who now sit in third place in Group J, following Friday’s 3-1 victory over Iceland.

Luc Holtz’s men now only trail second-placed Slovakia on goal difference (W3, D1, L1). They will be confident of getting a result, having not lost away from home in this qualifying campaign (W1, D1).