4 hours ago
3
Published On 5 Sep 2025
Who: Armenia vs Portugal
What: UEFA qualifiers for FIFA 2026 World Cup
Where: Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium successful Yerevan, Armenia
When: Saturday, September 6 astatine 8pm (16:00 GMT).
How to follow: We’ll person each the build-up connected Al Jazeera Sport from 13:00 GMT successful beforehand of our unrecorded substance commentary stream.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 items- list 1 of 4US Open women’s final: Sabalenka’s acquisition vs Anisimova’s grit
- list 2 of 4Generational rivalry: Alcaraz vs Djokovic acceptable to airy up US Open 2025
- list 3 of 4All French pistillate boxers retired of satellite championships implicit familial trial row
- list 4 of 4Who are the teams, and what are their squads for Asia Cup 2025?
Portugal statesman their quest to scope the FIFA 2026 World Cup erstwhile they question to Armenia connected Saturday for their UEFA qualifying match, but overmuch of the absorption is connected the archetypal lucifer for the Portuguese since the passing of their forward, Diogo Jota.
Portugal midfielder Ruben Neves volition deterioration the fig 21 jersey of his precocious friend, Jota, during games for the nationalist squad and has revealed a tattoo connected his near calf successful honour of the erstwhile Liverpool striker, who died successful July.
“I and the full nationalist squad volition bash everything we tin to support Diogo present with us, connected our team,” Neves said precocious Tuesday astatine a ceremonial astatine Portugal’s grooming basal held up of the team’s World Cup qualifiers against Armenia and Hungary. Republic of Ireland are the different squad successful Group F
Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, died successful a car mishap connected July 3.
Neves, who plays for Al Hilal successful Saudi Arabia, was precise adjacent to Jota – they played unneurotic astatine English nine Wolverhampton and Portugal – and spoke connected behalf of the Portugal squad astir his erstwhile teammate astatine the ceremony, which was besides attended by Cristiano Ronaldo, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Luis Montenegro, the precocious appointed premier minister.
The Portuguese federation posted a video connected X of Neves with a tattoo that shows him embracing Jota, who was wearing the fig 21 jersey.
𝗡𝗮𝗱𝗮 𝗡𝗼𝘀 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗿. Por ti, Diogo Jota 🤍 pic.twitter.com/Qy56zijvNP
— Portugal (@selecaoportugal) September 2, 2025
Tuesday’s ceremonial was besides a tribute to Jorge Costa, the erstwhile Portugal planetary who died past period of cardiac arrest.
Pedro Proenca, president of the Portuguese Football Federation, described Jota and Costa arsenic men “who loved football; who loved their country; who loved their nationalist team; men who defended, with courageousness and dedication, the colours of our flag”.
Jota and Costa were posthumously honoured arsenic Commanders of the Order of Merit and awarded medals, which were accepted by household members.
The federation said the squad was made up of “23 (+1)” players – successful different motion to the representation of Jota.
Why person Portugal not played immoderate World Cup qualifiers yet?
Portugal, on with 23 different teams, are lone joining the qualifying programme for the World Cup present owed to the advancement of immoderate of the apical seeds successful the 2025 Nations League, which culminated successful June.
Portugal were crowned champions arsenic they bushed Spain 5-3 connected penalties successful the 2025 final.
Portugal bushed Germany successful the semifinal, portion Spain overcame France. The remainder of the qualifiers for the second stages of that tourney are besides lone entering the World Cup qualifiers now.
Head-to-head
This is the seventh gathering betwixt the countries, with 4 Portugal wins and 2 draws recorded previously.
The past gathering came successful a Euro qualifier successful 2015, which the Portuguese won 3-2 successful Armenia.
Armenia squad news
Narek Grigoryan is injured, portion Norberto Briasco misses retired owed to a household issue.
Lucas Zelarayan and Grant-Leon Ranos are both, however, backmost successful the first-team plans.
Portugal squad news
Rafael Leao is retired with a calf injury, portion Diogo Dalot has a musculus occupation and has been forced to withdraw.
Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 5 goals successful 4 games against Armenia, including a hat-trick successful the past gathering betwixt the sides.
Armenia predicted starting lineup
Cancarevic; Hovhannisyan, Mkrtchyan, Arutyunyan, Muradyan, Tiknizyan; Iwu, Dashyan; Bichakhchyan, Zelarayan; Barseghyan
Portugal predicted starting lineup
Costa; Cancelo, Dias, A. Silva, Mendes; Fernandes, R. Neves, Bernardo; Conceicao, Ronaldo, Neto
Source:
Al Jazeera and quality agencies
English (US) ·