Portugal v Slovenia LIVE: Team news and line-ups as Cristiano Ronaldo starts Euro 2024 clash

He said: “We have earned the right to be likeable. We can praise each other in the press conference, but the match will be different.

“Finally Slovenia is witnessing football euphoria. Fans here in Germany and back home are cheering for us. I don’t need to protect the players from it – every match fills them with energy.

“I see Portugal as one of the favourites to win the tournament. We aren’t the favourite against them, but we’re glad to be able to compete in this Euro.”

Zinedine Zidane didn’t get this before dominating Euro 2000, when he was 28. Despite that gap, Musiala is being seen in similar terms to the French great then, at least as far as an individual European Championships goes. That is as the potential player of the tournament.

Slovenia make their first alteration of the tournament: Erik Janza is suspended, so Jure Balkovec is brought in at left-back.

Slovenia XI: Oblak; Karnicnik, Drkusic, Bijol, Balkovec; Stojanovic, Elsnik, Gnezda Cerin, Mlakar; Sesko, Sporar.

Rafael Leao returns from suspension to join Cristiano Ronaldo in Portugal’s forward line, with plenty of creativity in behind the pair in midfield.

Portugal XI: Costa; Joao Cancelo, Dias, Pepe, Nuno Mendes; Vitinha, Joao Palhinha; Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes, Leao; Ronaldo.

Cristiano Ronaldo is without a goal in seven major tournament appearances for Portugal, despite attempting 19 shots in this run – his longest such drought.

Portuguese midfielder Bruno Fernandes said that defeat to Georgia has put Portugal “on their toes” for the game against Slovenia in the last-16 this evening.

“We don’t have a lot of time to think about what was. We have to think about what’s going to be,” Fernandes said, “We respect every opponent.

“This [Slovenia] team has very relevant names, high-quality players – we respect them greatly. After the negative results, people tend to focus on the negative aspects, but this is how football works.”

Portugal won Group F despite losing 2-0 to Georgia in their final group game after boss Roberto Martinez made a whole heap of changes.

They have reached at least the quarter-finals in five of their last six European Championships, including winning the tournament in 2016.

But, Slovenia won 2-0 when the sides met in a friendly in March, ending a run of 11 Portugal victories in a row.

There was a minute left to run on Gareth Southgate’s reign, the clock ticking down on a dismal tournament that seemed a demoralising end to the second-finest tenure of any England manager.

Until Bellingham underlined that he has that combination of talent, technique and temperament to offer the promise of greatness. There had been reasons for Southgate to replace him: booked for a rash lunge at Lukas Haraslin, he had been unwise enough to lay his hands on the referee. He had endured a poor game.

“You build on the spirit that they’ve shown, the belief that they’ll have gained from that,” Gareth Southgate said following England’s 2-1 victory over Slovakia.

“Equally, we’re not naive. We’re going to play a team [Switzerland] that have looked outstanding, not just in this tournament but for quite a while as well. That’s going to be a big tactical challenge for us.

“We know that the level of our game will need to be higher, but there was a spirit and there was a togetherness that has been building.

“We’ve had a lot of problems to solve through this whole lead into the camp, through the tournament. We’re putting a plaster over different things and giving young players opportunities. We’re somehow finding a way.

“I can imagine how everybody is going to react to that, even though we’ve won. But we’re still in there and the one thing that can’t be questioned is the desire, the commitment, the character.”

Gareth Southgate knows stumbling but spirited England have to raise their game if they are to stand a chance of beating “outstanding” Switzerland in Saturday’s Euro 2024 quarter-final.

A trip to Dusseldorf awaits after Jude Bellingham came to the rescue with a 95th-minute overhead equaliser against wily Slovakia on Sunday before Harry Kane sealed a 2-1 extra-time win.

England were seconds away from their tournament coming to an end in humiliating fashion, only to squeak through to a fourth successive major quarter-final under Southgate.