Tottenham\u2019s Jo\u00e3o Palhinha is your typical Portuguese international; regularly involved in eight-figure transfers without nailing down a regular spot with the UEFA Nations League champions.<\/p>\n
An injury to Jo\u00e3o Neves, however, prevents Roberto Martinez from continuing the partnership with Vitinha that backboned Paris Saint-Germain\u2019s Champions League triumph last summer.<\/p>\n
Palhinha is a willing and worthy replacement for Saturday\u2019s visit of Ireland to his native Lisbon.<\/p>\n
Since leaving Bayern Munich for London, on a season-long loan with an option to buy for \u20ac30m, he\u2019s been a constant for new boss Thomas Frank.<\/p>\n
Finding the net three times, including the win over Manchester City and rescuing a draw at home to Wolves, have complemented his importance.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s the favourite to deputise for Neves, as the Portuguese seek to maintain their 100% start at the midway stage, moving within touching distance of a ticket to the World Cup next year.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll not just qualify for the showpiece across North America but travel there among those tipped to lift the only trophy missing from their collection.<\/p>\n
\u201cIreland is a team we know well,\u201d said the 30-year-old, highlighting the last World Cup qualifying campaign, when Ireland led until the final minute.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve played them previously and I remember that match in the Algarve when we were behind and managed to win 2-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know many of their players because they play in England – and for good teams. It’s always going to be a tough game but we\u2019ve yet to fully analyse them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Portugal messed up that last World Cup campaign by suffering a late loss to Serbia in the final game of 2021 but they\u2019ve not been beaten in a competitive home match for three years, since a narrow defeat to Iberian rivals Spain.<\/p>\n
\u201cVictories bring a lot of confidence to the team,\u201d he said about their rampaging run.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than ever, we’re going through a phase in the national team where, when we look around, we see the quality of the teammates at our side.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also feel that the spirit and unity are greater than in the past. And perhaps that’s what gave way at certain moments. I see a united team, very hungry to win tournaments.<\/p>\n
Palhinha was restricted to just 17 Bundesliga appearances after joining from Fulham, inactivity he claims affected his international prospects.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cOur team is full of players who are club regulars. Last season wasn\u2019t easy for me, especially when I was injured, and then I didn’t get the opportunities I deserved at Bayern.<\/p>\n
\u201cCareers go through phases and now I’m in a happy phase in my life. A new club, a new project. Yes, a league that’s not new to me but the team is fruitful. Football and life can be very temporary so we must enjoy these moments.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tottenham\u2019s Jo\u00e3o Palhinha is your typical Portuguese international; regularly involved in eight-figure transfers without nailing down a regular…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1113,61,60,2539,5782,43,5783],"class_list":{"0":"post-65683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-fai","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-league-of-ireland","12":"tag-local-soccer","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-premiership"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}