“Portugal is one of the favorites for the Euro”, but the Slovenian team wants to show that “they are not going to Germany for tourism”

Matjaz Kek, Slovenia’s coach, has no problem placing Portugal among the favorites to win Euro 2024. However, in anticipation of Tuesday’s duel, Slovenia wants to show that they are not going to the tournament to do tourism and, Therefore, they want to show their potential against the Portuguese team.

“In my opinion, Portugal is one of the favorites for the European Championship. I have a lot of respect for Portugal, the coach and his fantastic series, but 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”, said Matjaz Kek.

The 62-year-old coach was speaking to journalists at the Slovenian national team’s training center, located in Kranj, 30 kilometers north of the capital Ljubljana, at the conference ahead of Tuesday’s friendly with Portugal.

“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,” she said.

Slovenia will compete in group C of the European Championship. It will measure forces with England, Denmark and Serbia.

Asked whether Cristiano Ronaldo will receive any special treatment from the Slovenian defense, Matjaz Kek showered the Portuguese national team captain with praise.

“In this profession you have to be crazy not to respect a name like Cristiano Ronaldo, who took football to a higher level. Of course we will have to be careful, but I give my players complete freedom. They will know how to make the right decisions on the field. I trust them completely,” he said.

The first Slovenia-Portugal match in history is scheduled for 7:45 pm (in Lisbon), at the Stozice Stadium, in Ljubljana.

The quinas team is part of Group F of Euro 2024, in which they will face Turkey, the Czech Republic and the winner of path C of the play-offs (Georgia or Greece).