Portugal will prepare for their pivotal Nations League matches against France and Croatia with a midweek friendly against Andorra at the Estadio da Luz on Wednesday.
The visitors also have further clashes in the Nations League to look forward to in the coming days, but there is little riding on Andorra's games as they sit rock bottom of Group D1.
Match preview
Portugal are not out of the woods in Nations League Group A3 just yet; Fernando Santos's men do sit atop the rankings, but France are only behind on goal difference, with Saturday's game between the World and European champions bound to prove decisive in the race to make the finals.
The current Nations League champions are still on course to defend their title, but must overcome the World Cup champions and runners-up to secure their spot in next year's final four, with Portugal easily overcoming Sweden in their most recent outing.
Despite losing Cristiano Ronaldo to a positive coronavirus test, Diogo Jota - who has since made quite the impact at Liverpool - starred for Santos's side as he notched up a brace after fellow Premier League man Bernardo Silva had opened the scoring on the night.
Santos will undoubtedly want to experiment with his team for Wednesday's friendly with Andorra, as Portugal cannot afford to lose any big names before two crucial showdowns with France and Croatia, with a couple of uncapped players potentially in line for their first starts for the national team.
Portugal's recent friendly encounters have often been closely-fought affairs - the European and Nations League champions have drawn four of their last six exhibition matches - including a goalless stalemate with Spain last month.
Meanwhile, the less that is said about Andorra's Nations League campaign, the better. Koldo Alvarez's men have picked up no wins from their first four matches in Group D1 and any slim hopes of promotion to League C have already been dashed.
The Tricolours can only boast one win from their last 23 international matches across all competitions - which was a 1-0 victory over Moldova in their European qualifying group - with Andorra losing five and drawing three since that narrow triumph last October.
Last month's international fixtures saw Andorra play out a 0-0 draw with Malta before succumbing to a 2-0 defeat to the Faroe Islands in the Nations League, with Alvarez's side also losing to Cape Verde in last month's friendly.
Andorra's last friendly victory was a 1-0 win over Liechtenstein in March 2018, and Alvarez's men will certainly not feel confident of getting something against Portugal - a side whom they have lost to five times out of five and conceded 22 goals to along the way.
Portugal International Friendlies form: DDWDWD
Portugal form (all competitions): WWWDDW
Andorra International Friendlies form: WLWLDL
Andorra form (all competitions): LDLLDL
Team News
The big news from the Portugal camp is that Ronaldo has fully recovered from coronavirus and is in the squad for November's fixtures, with the Juventus forward recently hitting the 100-goal mark for the national team, although the 35-year-old is unlikely to be involved on Wednesday.
Keeping with the attacking theme, Wolverhampton Wanderers forward Pedro Neto and Braga striker Paulinho have both earned call-ups and will feel hopeful of pulling on the Portugal jersey for the first time against Andorra.
However, veteran defender Pepe is struggling with a foot issue and has not been included in the squad, while Eintracht Frankfurt's Andre Silva also misses out despite being included for October's fixtures, as does Daniel Podence.
As for Andorra, midfielder Marcio Vieira currently sits on 97 caps for the national team, and the 36-year-old will no doubt be looking to start all three of his side's games this month to reach that historic century.
The visitors' record appearance maker and all time top goalscorer Ildefons Lima is still going strong at the age of 40, but the defender has become embroiled in tensions with those higher up and has not been called up to the squad since last November.
Portugal possible starting lineup:
Patricio; N. Semedo, Duarte, R. Semedo, Rui; Moutinho, Neves, Sanches; Trincao, Paulinho, Neto
Andorra possible starting lineup:
Gomes; Rubio, Nicolas, E. Garcia, Cervos; Vieira, Rodriguez, Pujol, Martinez; Alaez, Cucu
We say: Portugal 6-0 Andorra
Portugal will rest some key players as they look ahead to their decisive Nations League fixtures, but Santos is sure to put out a team capable of scoring several goals against a lowly Andorra side. Realistically, it is only a question of how many the European champions can chalk up in midweek - as Portugal have already scored a plethora of goals in previous matches against Andorra - and we expect Santos's men to hit them for six on Wednesday.
Top betting tip
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