The Portuguese coach, Fernando Santos, lamented this Sunday the injury of Danilo Pereira, who will miss the next group stage matches of the 2022 World Cup, and revealed that the “monster” Pepe will be in the starting eleven with Uruguay. In the press conference prior to the match against Uruguay, this Monday, the coach also said that the team “must learn from what it did less well” and refused to compare the World Cup game in Qatar with that of the 2018 World Cup, in Russia, which dictated the Portuguese elimination????????
Fernando Santos explained to the journalists how Danilo’s injury was, who suffered a broken rib during Portugal’s training session and will no longer have to play in the group stage. “We were practicing defensive set pieces and, in the middle of a struggle, he [Danilo] scream. We went to see what was going on. At first, it didn’t seem like anything special. She was having some difficulty breathing but finally managed to catch her breath. We thought it was nothing important, but as a precaution he went to the hospital for tests and that was the conclusion,” said the coach.
“It is a minimum. We are all very sad. If we can still count on him, better, but we have three central defenders and other players who can also play there”, he said, later adding one of the players who will be part of Monday’s 11: Pepe, whom he called “monster”. ???? ????If there is someone with such an important role in the locker room, it is him.”, he added. Regarding the physical conditions of Nuno Mendes and Otávio, there was still no news: “Let’s see if they improve in today’s training [domingo]???????? This morning we were still in treatment.”
The team also considered it essential that Portugal analyze the previous matches in order to evolve. “We have to look at each game and see what we can improve. We have to learn from what we did not do well.”, he assumed, also defending that it is not possible to compare tomorrow’s game with the World Cup in Russia. “It’s not like 2018 or 2022: things are changing. The characteristics of the players are different. In the match against Spain, for 70 minutes, we were a very strong team. It is the games that cement the changes [que a equipa tem sofrido]”, he defended.
Source: Observadora
