5 Porto players in Portugal squad for Norway match

Published May. 23, 2011 2:56 p.m. ET

foxsports

Five players from the FC Porto team that won four trophies this season have been named in the Portugal squad for its crucial European Championship qualifier against Norway next month.

Porto won the Europa League and the Portuguese league, Cup and Supercup in the just-ended season.

There were no major surprises in coach Paulo Bento's announcement Monday of his 23-man squad for the June 4 encounter.

Malaga's Duda and Sporting Lisbon's Andre Santos earned recalls but there was no place for Genoa's Miguel Veloso or Ricardo Quaresma of Besiktas.

Cristiano Ronaldo returns for the match at Benfica's Stadium of Light after missing two friendly games through injury.

Portugal is fighting back from a disastrous start to its Euro 2012 qualifying campaign and lies joint second with Denmark in group H, three points behind leader Norway.

The Norwegians beat Portugal 1-0 in Oslo last September, days after the Portuguese were held to a 4-4 draw at home by Cyprus, to leave the Portuguese with just one point from their first two qualifying matches.

Bento has revived Portugal's fortunes since he replaced Carlos Queiroz eight months ago, winning two out of two in group H and presiding over the 4-0 friendly victory against world champion Spain.

''There's pressure on us, but it's a better kind of pressure than we had last year,'' Bento said.

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Squad:

Goalkeepers: Eduardo (Genoa), Rui Patricio (Sporting Lisbon), Ventura (Portimonense).

Defenders: Joao Pereira (Sporting Lisbon), Rolando (Porto), Ricardo Carvalho (Real Madrid), Bruno Alves (Zenit St. Petersburg), Fabio Coentrao (Benfica), Pepe (Real Madrid), Silvio (Braga).

Midfielders: Paulo Machado (Toulouse), Carlos Martins (Benfica), Joao Moutinho (Porto), Raul Meireles (Liverpool), Ruben Micael (Porto), Duda (Malaga), Andre Santos (Sporting).

Strikers: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Danny (Zenit St. Petersburg), Helder Postiga (Sporting Lisbon), Hugo Almeida (Besiktas), Nani (Manchester United), Silvestre Varela (Porto).