Slovenian coach puts Portugal among the favorites to win the EURO :: zerozero.pt

Slovenia and Portugal play, this Tuesday, a preparatory match for next summer’s European Championship. In Ljubljana, a Portuguese team is expected to be a candidate to win the final phase of the competition, in the view of coach Matjaz Kek.

This Monday, in preview of the match, the Slovenian helmsman did not hesitate to point out the team led by Roberto Martínez among the candidates for the European scepter. «In my opinion, Portugal is one of the favorites for the European Championship. I have a lot of respect for Portugal, for the coach and for his fantastic series”, the 62-year-old coach began by saying.

However, Kek doesn’t want to make it easy and wants the selection’s focus to be solely on the work itself: «We have to think about ourselves. Before the European Championship, we wanted to do everything during the preparation to measure our quality and strength and that will happen against Portugal. We have to think about ourselves and our preparation.”

In this sense, the coach left the recipe for the game with Portugal and which could also be used for the competition on German soil. «We have to be realistic and understand that we are not going to be dominant against teams like the Portuguese. We do have to take advantage of the moments when we have the ball to quickly try to surprise and we have, of course, to defend very well and with a lot of concentration. We have to show that we are not just going to Germany as tourists. That’s what we want to demonstrate against Portugal”, he concluded.

The meeting between Slovenia and Portugal is scheduled for 7:45 pm on Tuesday. The two teams already held their first friendly meeting in this international window, with the Portuguese beating Sweden (5-2) and the Slovenians drawing against Malta (2-2).