Manchester United star says he is playing for the one Euro 2024 team ‘everyone wants to see’

Manchester United have eight players at Euro 2024. Four of those have featured so far.

Scott McTominay, Kobbie Mainoo, Christian Eriksen have all seen action, while Luke Shaw waits amid his recovery from injury.

Altay Bayindir’s Turkey are yet to play, as are a Portugal side boasting Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot.

Portugal are particularly fancied to do well, after winning 10 qualification matches from a possible 10 games.

• READ: Manchester United stars at Euro 2024, fixtures, kick-off times

Diogo Dalot keen to get started

Diogo Dalot is excited to get started, with Portugal due to start their tournament against the Czech Republic.

He believes Portugal are the team ‘everyone wants to see’, and believes there is enough talent in the squad to create a well balanced group.

He told Zero Zero: “We have a very experienced group that can pass on experiences to younger people. There is this symbiosis that I think is important in a group.

“We know that Portugal will always be the team that everyone wants to see. We have to be aware of this responsibility, but looking at it calmly, as an extra motivation.

The presence of two-time European Championships top goalscorer Cristiano Ronaldo, now 39, adds the intrigue around the Portugal team.

Portugal suffered surprise defeat before Euro 2024

Portugal’s unbeaten streak since the last World Cup came to an abrupt end before the tournament in a 2-1 friendly loss at the hands of Croatia.

Diogo Dalot believes the timing of the defeat was exactly the kind of wake-up call Portugal can benefit from before the tournament.

He told Mais Futebol: “It marks just one experience, a game that was important for us, to improve some aspects before a big competition.

“Even though we had an immaculate, very positive qualifying phase, we need tests against more experienced teams in this type of competition to test some things that we couldn’t do during qualifying.”

Portugal won the tournament in 2016, in which former United duo Nani and Ronaldo featured. They subsequently won the UEFA Nations League, and are among the teams highly fancied to go far in this competition. Now is time to deliver.