Bruno Fernandes 'in touch' with Man Utd team-mates from England camp ahead of Portugal's Euro 2024 last-16 tie against Slovenia as he admits Roberto Martinez's team 'need to change' in order to progress

In March, Portugal took on Slovenia in a friendly and surprisingly fell to a 2-0 loss against Bostjan Cesar's men. The game saw the Euro 2016 winners get frustrated by a low block before goals from Adam Cerin and Timi Elsnik saw Slovenia steal the win. Fernandes has now spoken out about the need to make a change if Portugal are to reach the quarter-finals of Euro 2024.

Speaking to the media, Fernandes said: "We spoke about the game in recent days because it’s good for us to have that image where they did a great game against us.

"We had the chance to see what we need to do differently to make sure we hurt them. They have two players up front who combine really well together. This team [Slovenia] has high-quality players and we respect them greatly. We had a friendly where they beat us and this needs to put us on our toes. We need to change, we need to do things differently to make sure we get a positive result.

"For us, it doesn’t matter whether we are playing Slovenia or any other team that are more typical candidate to win the Euros because our goal is the same: we respect every opponent … we don’t look at the name of the team, we look at the players because we need to study them closely."

Fernandes was also asked about whether he had been in touch with his Manchester United team-mates Luke Shaw and Kobbie Mainoo in the England camp, with the Three Lions having faced Slovenia in a 0-0 draw in the group stage.

He said: "I’ve been in touch [with them] but not been speaking about the games or something that we could do different because we play different football. England play in a certain way, we play in a different way, so it’s not going to help me much. I trust my teammates and we as a team really trust the staff and the backroom staff to prepare us best to approach the game."

Roberto Martinez's men have not been at the top of their game through the group stages and lost their last outing against Georgia. They will hope to put on a much-improved display when they take on Slovenia on Monday, July 1 at Deutsche Bank Park.