Fulham star Joao Palhinha put in another great performance for Portugal as they defeated Iceland last night.
According to the Portuguese media, the 28-year-old put in another fine display as he looks to secure his place in the side ahead of next summer’s European Championship.
There will be a few Fulham representatives at the Euros next year at this rate.
Marek Rodak helped Slovakia confirm their place at the tournament, while Timothy Castagne is likely to be in the Belgium squad.
Midfielder Sasa Lukic will hope to be in the Serbia line-up while Harry Wilson and Luke Harris’s chances of being there with Wales are hanging by a thread.
Palhinha helped Portugal defeat Iceland 2-0 last night with Bruno Fernandes and Ricardo Horta scoring the goals.
Fernandes and Palhinha clashed at times during Fulham’s 1-0 loss to Manchester United recently in the Premier League.
The Fulham man was harshly booked for a tackle on his international teammate, but they were all smiles when Fernandes nailed Palhinha later in the game.
The pair clearly work very well together on the international stage with Portugal maintaining a 100%-win rate in qualification.
Palhinha performs for Portugal against Iceland
Portuguese outlet Record gave Palhinha a 3/5 and said: “Strong at turning the game and speeding up Portugal’s play with long passes, especially in the first half, as well as compensating for the frequent runs by Rúben Dias and Gonçalo Inácio.
“On the other hand, a ‘hard’ tackle earned him a yellow.”
For Fulham fans, Record’s description of Palhinha’s performance sounds very familiar.
His long passing is one of his strong points in possession but isn’t something we always necessarily see.
Marco Silva prefers him to play it short into the feet of Alex Iwobi, Andreas Pereira or Willian but it’s always a skill he has in his locker.
Palhinha’s picking up a yellow card against Iceland is something both Portugal and Fulham fans can very much expect at this point.
His tackling is extremely good but he does get penalised quickly by referees when he times one wrong.
Losing him for the match against Wolves next week is far from ideal, but wouldn’t be as bad as if he moved on in January.
Bayern are sniffing around again despite his new contract and it’s hard to see how Fulham find a like-for-like replacement for such an impressive player.
Hopefully, he can stay until at least the summer and put in some top performance in Germany to push his asking price even further.