Suarez drops to the bench for Uruguay against Portugal

LUSAIL, Qatar :Uruguay coach Diego Alonso dropped striker Luis Suarez to the bench and brought forward Edinson Cavani into his starting 11 for Monday's World Cup Group H match against Portugal who also shuffled up their team.

After Uruguay's 0-0 draw with South Korea in their opening match of the tournament, Alonso also gave starts to defenders Sebastian Coates and Guillermo Varela in the place of attacking midfielder Facundo Pellistri and defender Martin Caceres.

Portugal coach Fernando Santos drafted in veteran defender Pepe, 39, to replace the injured Danilo Pereira in the centre of his back line while captain Cristiano Ronaldo continues to lead the attack.

Santos also moved to strengthen his midfield by bringing in William Carvalho to take the place of Otavio who was an injury concern in the build-up to Portugal's second match in Group H which they lead after beating Ghana 3-2 last week.

Teams

Portugal: Diogo Costa, Joao Cancelo, Pepe, Ruben Dias, Nuno Mendes, Ruben Neves, Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes, William Carvalho, Joao Felix, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Uruguay: Sergio Rochet, Sebastian Coates, Diego Godin, Jose Maria Gimenez, Guillermo Varela, Mathias Olivera, Rodrigo Bentancur, Matias Vecino, Federico Valverde, Edinson Cavani, Darwin Nunez.

(Writing by William Schomberg, Editing by Angus MacSwan and Pritha Sarkar)