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Fifa World Cup qualifier: Portugal v Republic of Ireland

Venue: Estadio Jose Alvalade, Lisbon Date: Saturday, 11 October Kick-off: 19:45 BST

It has been a glorious 2025 for Portugal and Paris St-Germain midfielder Vitinha.

The 25-year-old was integral for his club side as they won a treble including a maiden Champions League title.

He then helped Portugal win the Nations League, scoring in the shootout as they beat Spain on penalties in the final.

To cap off a successful spells, he was voted as the third best player in the world behind Ousmane Dembele and Lamine Yamal at the Ballon d’Or ceremony.

Vitinha is now regarded as one of the best midfielders in the world and he is expected to be part of Portugal’s line-up for Saturday’s World Cup qualifier against the Republic of Ireland.

Vitinha joined the Porto academy in 2011 and rose through the ranks to the first team, making his debut in January 2020 against Gil Vicente.

He would make seven further appearances that season as Porto won the Primeira Liga, but with the club under financial pressure, the then 20-year-old joined Wolves on a season-long loan with an option to buy for £17m.

When announcing the signing that summer, Wolves executive chairman Jeff Shi said that Vitinha was “a crucial signing”.

Nuno Barbosa, a Portuguese journalist for Jornal de Noticias, told the club website that “it’s impossible to watch him play and him not remind you of Joao Moutinho”.

Vitinha’s transition to English football was made difficult by the Covid-19 pandemic.

With fellow Portuguese midfielders Moutinho and Ruben Neves in front of him too, he struggled to establish himself at Molineux and when he did feature, he was often played out of position.

He made his debut as a substitute away to Sheffield United on 14 September, but his full Premier League debut would not arrive until 29 December against Manchester United.

He registered just 22 appearances for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side and his most memorable moment came in an EFL Cup game against non-league Chorley Town when he scored his only goal for the club with a terrific 35-yard winner.

At the end of the season, with Bruno Lange replacing Nuno, Wolves decided against signing him permanently, as whilst his technical ability was clear to see, he struggled to adapt to the intensity of the Premier League.

While he started the following season on the bench for Porto, as the campaign went on, Vitinha’s role in Sergio Conceicao’s team grew steadily as he consolidated his place in his preferred deep lying midfield role.

He made 47 appearances for the club as they won the Primeira Liga and the Taca de Portugal, with Vitinha scoring in the final of the cup.

He was named in the Primeira Liga Team of the Year and the Primeira Liga Best Young Player of the Year.

Vitinha’s form was rewarded with a maiden senior Portugal call-up in March 2022.

The 2021-22 campaign was one of redemption and one in which Vitinha established himself as an exciting young talent, which inevitably attracted the attention of big clubs in Europe.

The first year in France proved difficult.

While he made 48 appearances in all competitions as PSG won Ligue 1, Christophe Galtier’s top-heavy team, built around Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar, did not suit the diminutive midfielder, who had to do more defensive work.

There were even reports of a training ground altercation with Messi, which Vitinha vehemently denied, but things were soon on the up once Luis Enrique took over in the summer of 2023.

With Messi and Neymar having moved on, Enrique opted for a more holistic approach and a possession-based system.

That allowed Vitinha to flourish, as he was named in the Champions League and Ligue 1 Team of the Season as the Parisians won a domestic treble and he then featured for Portugal at the 2024 Euros.

Vitinha’s third season is when he truly became PSG’s midfield maestro however, dictating the tempo of games and starting attacks with his superb passing range.

He completed more passes than any other player in PSG’s successful Champions League run.

Luis Enrique, the manager who was integral to unlocking Vitinha’s full potential, said earlier this year that Vitinha “embodies the perfect midfielder”.

That was a view shared by those who voted in the Ballon d’Or, as Vitinha came in third behind Barcelona’s Yamal and teammate Dembele.

On the international stage too, Vitinha’s stature has steadily grown.

He has won 31 caps and is a consistent figure in midfield in a stacked Portugal squad who will have their eyes on challenging for the World Cup next year.

They sit top of their qualifying group with maximum points from their first two games ahead of home fixtures against Republic of Ireland and Hungary this month.

World Cup qualifying: Northern Ireland v Slovakia

Venue: Windsor Park, Belfast Date: Friday, 10 October Time: 19:45 BST

It was 10 years ago this week that Northern Ireland beat Greece to seal qualification for Euro 2016 and what was then their first major finals in three decades.

The 3-1 win over the Euro 2004 champions on 8 October 2015 was inarguably one of Windsor Park’s most memorable nights.

The stakes were similarly sky-high in play-off matches away to Switzerland and home to Slovakia in the campaigns that followed, albeit the results on those occasions did not go Northern Ireland’s way.

Such is the youthful nature of a Northern Ireland squad still rebuilding after the retirements of stalwarts such as Jonny Evans, Steven Davis and Stuart Dallas in recent years, for many it will simply be the biggest game of their international careers to date.

Of the 27-man panel named by manager Michael O’Neill to face Slovakai and then Germany three days later, only Bailey Peacock-Farrell, George Saville and Euro 2016 veterans Josh Magennis and Paddy McNair played in that play-off five years ago, while Daniel Ballard, Conor Hazard and Ali McCann were unused substitutes.

This is an almost wholly new Northern Ireland team leading Dallas to write in his BBC Sport NI column this week that he did not “think memories of that game will be a factor” come Friday night.

Perhaps that is a double-edged sword. While players are not burdened by any past failures on a similar stage, few in the squad have experienced an international fixture of such consequence.

Their two past qualification campaigns were practically over before they started and, while they did go to Luxembourg needing a point to secure top spot in their Nations League group in November, the stakes here are hardly comparable

Liverpool’s Conor Bradley spoke on Wednesday about the need to “manage the expectations” of a sold-out Windsor Park crowd, but added that he felt the side were “better prepared” now for such fixtures.

Isaac Price, meanwhile, talked of what he sees as the benefit of “confidence and some arrogance” among the young panel going into such a pivotal game.

When the qualifying draw was made in December, there was an understandable assumption that Germany would top the group and seal automatic qualification with Northern Ireland, Slovakia and Luxembourg fighting among themselves for the play-off spot afforded to the runner-up.

Slovakia’s victory over the four-time World Cup winners to kick things off last month has instead opened up myriad possibilities.

Friday night’s visitors to Windsor Park, who followed up their shock result against the Germans with late victory in Luxembourg, know that another three points in Belfast would be a huge step towards booking their place at next summer’s World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

While the side ranked 42nd in the world did not make the tournament in 2022, they reached the European Championships either side and were beaten by England at the last-16 stage in 2024 only after Jude Bellingham’s spectacular 96th-minute overhead kick.

Manager Francesco Calzona is the first foreign boss in the country’s history and came recommended by Slovakian legend Marek Hamsik from their time together at Napoli, where the Italian was an assistant coach.

Ties to the Serie A champions do not stop there with midfielder Stanislav Lobotka the side’s key player. The 30-year-old, however, has emerged as a major injury doubt for the game on Friday.

Another with recent Champions League experience, Atletico Madrid full back David Hancko, is another who could miss out.

While O’Neill said he would not believe their absences until the pair were missing when the anthems are played at Windsor Park, should Slovakia be without both then Middlesbrough striker David Strelec will be expected to carry a greater load.

In their own right, Northern Ireland come into the game buoyed by seeing five players feature in the same Premier League weekend for the first time in five years.

Striker Callum Marshall’s West Ham debut from the bench against Arsenal at the Emirates on Saturday saw him join Liverpool’s Bradley, Crystal Palace’s Justin Devenny and Sunderland duo Trai Hume and Daniel Ballard in featuring in the top flight this season.

Without a defeat in their past six games at Windsor Park, and having conceded just one goal during that run, the hosts can expect home advantage to be a factor too.

“We know that any success we have will have to be built here in Belfast,” said O’Neill.

“The key in any qualification game is to take maximum points in your home games or take as close to maximum points in your home games. Home form is imperative for progression.”