Portugal manager Fernando Santos has revealed his desire to sew up qualification for Euro 2016 before their return trip to face Serbia in a tricky tie in Belgrade on the final day of qualifying.
Santos' side face Serbia at Lisbon's Estadio da Luz on Sunday, hoping that star man and captain Cristiano Ronaldo can help open up a gap on one of their rivals for a place at the finals in France next summer.
With a win offering the Portuguese a chance to leapfrog Denmark at the top of the group, Santos wants to take what he sees as a key step towards sealing qualification.
Speaking after training, Santos said: 'The game is not decisive but it is very important. We depend only on ourselves, and if we win we get to depend only of us in an even stronger way. In this sense it is a very important game.
'The desire is to go to Belgrade (when they face Serbia on October 11) with qualification from the group already guaranteed.'
Ronaldo has scored both of low-scoring Portugal's two goals in qualifying so far, securing late wins over Denmark and Armenia after a shock opening-fixture defeat by Albania.
The Ballon d'Or winner has come under some criticism for his Real Madrid performances of late but looked full of confidence out on the pitch as his side went through their final preparations for Sunday's game.
Despite Serbia's poor record in qualifying so far - taking just one point from three games - they do boast a number of stars from Europe's top divisions, including Chelsea pair Nemanja Matic and Branislav Ivanovic as well as Liverpool winger Lazar Markovic.
However, Santos said that he would not be preparing his players to give any 'special attention' to any opposition players.
'There will be no special care for anyone,' he said. 'Portugal respects all of their players, Matic, (Zoran) Tosic, Markovic, I won't go on as I would have to name them all.
'As I told the players in this morning's meeting, the important thing is for us to be compact and dynamic.'
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