Renato Veiga is the eighth debutant in the “Roberto Martínez era”

By ADMIN On Oct 13, 2024

Defender Renato Veiga today made his eighth debut in the `era` of coach Roberto Martínez, appearing in Portugal’s starting line-up against Poland, on the third day of Group A1 of the Football Nations League.

At the National Stadium in Warsaw, the 21-year-old, who plays for Chelsea, was chosen to partner Rúben Dias in the centre of defence for the national team, which is trying to achieve its third consecutive victory in the competition and move closer to reaching the quarter-finals.Veiga succeeds Francisco Conceição, who made his debut in March this year, in Ljubljana, in the 2-0 defeat to Slovenia, in a friendly that served as preparation for Euro2024.At the Stozice Stadium, Francisco, son of former international Sérgio Conceição, former coach of FC Porto, was introduced into the match in the 46th minute, replacing midfielder Otávio.

In what was the first ever duel with Slovenia (who they later ended up facing in the final phase of Euro2024), Portugal suffered the first defeat under the command of Roberto Martínez, who had a 100% winning record since taking charge of the national team (11 triumphs).

Days before, it was the turn of forward Jota Silva, at the time at Vitória de Guimarães and now at Nottingham Forest, who spent his first minutes with the Portuguese team in the friendly victory over Sweden (5-2), also in preparation for the European Championship in Germany.

At the Dom Afonso Henriques Stadium, which was `his` home, Jota Silva, 24 years old, was introduced into the match in the 63rd minute, replacing Gonçalo Ramos and earned his first `AA` international cap.

In November last year, in the Euro2024 qualifiers in Vaduz, goalkeeper José Sá and Toti Gomes started in the victory over Liechtenstein (2-0), while full-back João Mário was brought on in the final minutes.

A month earlier, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, midfielder João Neves, just 19, had already earned his first international cap, being used as a substitute in Portugal’s 5-0 win in Zenica.

At the start of qualifying, on March 23, Sporting central defender Gonçalo Inácio had been Martínez’s first debutant, against Liechtenstein, which ended with a 4-0 victory for the Portuguese, at the José Alvalade Stadium, in Lisbon.

– The newcomers in the `Roberto Martínez` era:

12/10/24: Renato Veiga (Poland-Portugal, League of Nations)

26/03/24: Francisco Conceição (Slovenia-Portugal, 2-0, friendly)

21/03/24: Jota Silva (Portugal-Sweden, 5-2, friendly)

16/11/23: José Sá, Toti Gomes and João Mário (Liechtenstein-Portugal, 0-2, Euro2024 qualification)

16/10/23: João Neves (Bosnia and Herzegovina-Portugal, 0-5, Euro2024 qualifier)

23/03/23: Gonçalo Inácio (Portugal-Liechtenstein, 4-0, Euro2024 qualification.