Rossi: We must play bravely in Lisbon

Head coach Marco Rossi won't be able to count on winger Zsolt Nagy, who hasn't travelled with the team due to fever, but Roland Sallai and Barnabás Varga, suspended for last Saturday's 2-0 win over Armenia, are now available again.

"Every member of the team must play bravely against Portugal; we must show what we are capable of," Rossi emphasised on arrival in Lisbon. "We are expecting to play in front of tens of thousands of fans, so we are fortunate that we have experienced this in the Puskás Arena many times before, although the majority won't be on our side this time. One of the biggest enemies in football is fear, but no matter who you are playing against, you have to play football decisively and purposefully while following tactical instructions from start to finish, then we will see how the match turns out. Portugal represents a different playing level than the other members of the group - in fact I would rank them among the four or five best national teams in the world. We played well against them on home soil and were close to securing a draw, so we have to try to repeat that, only this time with fewer mistakes and a little more luck. The return of Barnabás Varga and Roland Sallai is important, because they are among our top scorers and the best players in the squad."

Hungary's head coach added that he expects a completely different match than the one against Armenia last Saturday, when we had more possession of the ball and more chances - on Tuesday it will almost certainly be the other way around.

"Despite this, you shouldn't just defend deep, because if you retreat and give up the opportunity to attack, you end up having to pray for a draw. This is not our mentality - we will try to win and do everything we can, then at the end of the match it will become clear whether it was enough," Rossi stated.

Wide player Loic Nego participated in this pre-match press conference alongside his coach and agreed that an extremely strong opponent awaits them on Tuesday.

Portugal are one of the best in the world, a fantastic team, but we are capable of causing them some unpleasant moments," Nego opined. "In September, in Budapest, we were close to a draw, so our goal now is to again give them a tough match. The match against Armenia was important, because we gained our first victory in the group - we collected three valuable points and it would be a great success if we could also score a point against Portugal, which would help us into a positive position in our qualifying group."

This World Cup qualifier against Portugal will be officiated by Serbian referee Srdjan Jovanovic. His assistants will be Uroš Stojković and Milan Mihajlović and the fourth official will be Novak Simović, while Momčilo Marković will assist them from the VAR room.

Portugal's current squad:

Goalkeepers: Diogo Costa (FC Porto), Rui Silva (Sporting CP), José Sá (Wolverhampton Wanderers)

Defenders: Diogo Dalot (Manchester United), Nelson Semedo (Fenerbahce), Nuno Mendes (Paris Saint-Germain), Goncalo Inacio (Sporting CP), Rúben Días (Manchester City), Antonio Silva (Benfica), Renato Veiga (Villarreal)

Midfielders: Joao Palhinha (Tottenham Hotspur), Rúben Neves (Al-Hilal), Joao Neves (Paris Saint-Germain), Matheus Nunes (Manchester City), Vitinha (Paris Saint-Germain), Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United), Pedro Goncalves (Sporting CP), Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)

Forwards: Joao Félix (Al-Nasr), Francisco Trincao (Sporting CP), Francisco Conceicao (Juventus), Pedro Neto (Chelsea), Rafael Leao (AC Milan), Goncalo Ramos (Paris Saint-Germain), Cristiano Ronaldo (Al-Nasr)