Technically speaking, Portugal’s press conference in Lisbon on Wednesday wasn’t without its flaws, the main one being that nobody watching it online back in Ireland could actually hear it. And the first recording sent later in the day was entirely in Portuguese, which led to a Google Translate intervention that had Paris Saint-Germain’s Danilo Pereira discussing his compatriot Joao Cancelo’s “escrow yoga club”.
Pereira may indeed have given his thoughts on just such a matter, whatever it actually means, but there was no mention of it when his football association very kindly shared another recording, this one with a translator narrating the session to rescue the monoglots.
Pereira, sitting alongside his manager Fernando Santos, with bottles of Portuguese Luso water in front of them, which would have impressed their number seven, was, instead, acknowledging that Santos was spoilt for choice when it came to selecting his defence (not to mention his midfield and attack).
Ruben Dias and the ageless Pepe usually fill the centre back roles, where Pereira can also play, while his full-back riches include the escrow yoga club owner, Dias’s Manchester City comrade Cancelo, Borussia Dortmund’s Raphael Guerreiro (currently on the comeback trail from injury), Pereira’s young PSG team-mate Nuno Mendes (suspended for the Irish game), Wolves’ Nelson Semedo and Diogo Dalot, still holding his place in the squad despite getting even less playing time at Manchester United than Donny van de Beek.
The 30-year-old has, then, spent the bulk of his 53 caps playing in a defensive midfield role akin to the one he fills for PSG, although with Marco Verratti, Georginio Wijnaldum, Ander Herrera and Leandro Paredes amongst his competitors for a place in Mauricio Pochettino’s starting line-up, nailing down a place in his club side is no easier than it is with his country.
He was an unused sub for the visit of Ireland to the Algarve in September, when yer man scored in the 89th and 96th minutes to win the game, although he saw enough from the bench to conclude that Stephen Kenny’s troupe are “a very complicated opponent”, “combative and difficult to unblock”.
That game, he said, was “somewhat difficult”, Santos rating it a little more tricky than that, but putting the bulk of Portugal’s struggles down to self-inflicted wounds.
“We lost the balance of the game, and began playing in a way that was more convenient to Ireland. There was a lot of attack and counter-attack, that did not help us. It allowed the Irish team enter our area and they ended up scoring a goal from a corner. But we reacted well and didn’t allow Ireland create any more problems for us.”
“We have to have a team that always plays to win, that is what we are going to try to do in Ireland, but knowing we need the right balance. When we lose the ball we need to recover it and eliminate the possibility of the counter-attack”
Portugal have, he said (according to the translator), been working on “stopped balls” in training, which was taken as a nod to the prowess of Shane Duffy and John Egan’s foreheads at set-pieces.
He has faith in his defence, though, to deal with the threat, not least Cancelo who, he reckons, is “the best in the world” in his position.
That position against Ireland could be on the left of his defence, in the absence of Guerreiro and Mendes, where he has been playing for City of late, having largely filled the right-back role until Kyle Walker’s renaissance.
He was man of the match in the recent Manchester derby, one of five Portuguese players to feature in the game - along with team-mates Dias and Silva and United’s Bruno Fernandes and Cristiano Ronaldo.
“Yes, we had five players in that game, but we are not playing that derby, we are playing Ireland,” said Santos, not adding, out of respect, that Duffy and Egan should be harder nuts to crack than Maguire, Lindelof and Bailly.
One matter Santos didn’t address was Joao Cancelo’s escrow yoga club. We will, you suspect, die wondering.
