Cristiano Ronaldo could return to the European stage when Portugal face Liechtenstein on Thursday.

The five-time Ballon d'Or winner has been named in Roberto Martinez's first Portugal squad for their two Euro 2024 qualifiers this week, despite his move to Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia in January.

Ronaldo has scored nine goals in eight appearances at his new club, and he will now look to add to his record 118 international goals against the minnows of Group J.

Despite the appointment of a new manager in the form of Martinez, there are actually very few changes he has made to the squad which the previous boss Fernando Santos took to the World Cup.

There is no place in the 26-man squad for William Carvalho, Andre Silva or Ricardo Horta, but they are the only three absentees from the squad which exited at the quarter-final stage in Qatar.

Nuno Mendes and Danilo Pereira are both back after the duo suffered injuries early in the tournament and both are likely to feature at some point.

Goncalo Ramos may have to battle with Ronaldo for a starting spot up front, but playing against such weak opponents could see Martinez opt to overload with attacking options, given the lack of threat expected from Liechtenstein.

Pepe was initially named in the squad, but the 40-year-old has been ruled out of both this game and their trip to Luxembourg on Sunday with the injury which saw him miss Porto's Champions League second leg against Inter Milan last Tuesday.

Joao Cancelo will hope to be in favour with the new manager after issues at both Manchester City and Bayern Munich recently, as well as at international level, as Santos preferred Diogo Dalot and Raphael Guerreiro at full-back in the latter stage of their run in Qatar.

Portugal possible starting lineup: Diogo Costa; Cancelo, Danilo, Antonio Silva, Guerreiro; Ruben Neves, Bernardo Silva, Fernandes; Joao Felix, Ronaldo, Rafael Leao

Written by
Andrew Delaney