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Portugal lose 2-0 to Slovenia in friendly

Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo (left) fights for the ball with Slovenia's midfielder Sandi Lovric. Photo: Jure Makovec/AFP

Portugal slipped to a surprise 2-0 defeat to Slovenia in a Euro 2024 friendly in Ljubljana on Tuesday, their first defeat since the arrival of Spanish coach Roberto Martinez who had previously won eleven games in a row. 

After the 5-2 win over Sweden in Guimaraes on Thursday, Portugal had Cristiano Ronaldo back in their line-up but were missing the inspiration of their playmakers Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva.

Slovenia, who have also qualified for the Euros in Germany, opened the scoring through Adam Gnezda Cerin in the 72nd minute before Timi Elsnik doubled the advantage eight minutes later. 

Having qualified with an unblemished record of 10 wins from 10 matches, Portugal will fine-tune their Euro preparations in June with further friendlies against Finland, Republic of Ireland and Croatia.

When they get to Germany they will be grouped with Turkey, the Czech Republic and Georgia, who qualified on Tuesday by beating Greece on penalties in a play-off. 

Slovenia have been drawn in the same group as England, Denmark and Serbia. 

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