Manchester City duo leave national team camp following opening international friendly

Pep Guardiola and Manchester City have received their first returns from international duty this week, following exits for Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva from Portugal’s camp.

Portugal cruised to a 5-2 victory over Sweden in their opening international friendly of the final break this season, with Manchester City’s stars on duty contributing to the goalscoring antics over Jon Dahl Tomasson’s side.

Matheus Nunes grabbed a goal on the evening, assisted by his Manchester City teammate Bernardo Silva, with the latter now seemingly contributing for the final time to the Portugal team before the summer’s European Championships.

It has been confirmed in light of the dominant victory over the Scandinavian nation that a total of eight players in Roberto Martinez’s squad will head off on an extended break from football all together, before reuniting with their club sides next week.

That is as per confirmation from Portuguese outlet B24, both Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva have now left Roberto Martinez’s Portugal national team camp, along with six other members of the squad ahead of their final international friendly.

Nélson Semedo, Toti Gomes, Palhinha, Bruno Fernandes, Rafael Leão, and Gonçalo Ramos have also been granted an early exit from the national team, with Martinez initially calling up 32 players, and the plan being to relieve a large portion ahead of their meeting with Slovenia.

A number of Manchester City first-team stars begin their international commitments on Friday, with Rico Lewis appearing for England’s under-21 side in their under-21 European Championship qualifier against Azerbaijan’s youth equivalent.

Erling Haaland, Oscar Bobb, Nathan Ake, and Rodrigo are all scheduled to contribute to their national teams later on Friday evening, in three international friendlies viewed as warm-ups for the summer’s major tournament.

Argentina, Belgium, England, Switzerland, and Croatia all take to the field on Saturday, while Manchester City’s players are expected to start returning to the club from next Wednesday ahead of the Premier League showdown against Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium.