They may be rivals on the pitch, but the Portugal internationals from Manchester United and Manchester City are maintaining a healthy rivalry off it.
With Cristiano Ronaldo's return to United this year, there are now six members of the Portuguese national side in Manchester, with Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot joining Ronaldo for the reds, while Ruben Dias, Joao Cancelo and Bernardo Silva are regulars for City.
Aside from Cancelo and Dalot competing for the right-back spot for the national team, all players are regulars with Portugal, and have been key fixtures for their sides this season as City lead the Premier League and United are transitioning to life under Ralf Rangnick.
Despite the on-field rivalry, though, Bernardo has revealed how the six players keep in regular contact in Manchester and even send jokes to each other about how the other team is doing.
Revealing a meal hosted by Fernandes between the six players, Bernardo told O Jogo (via SportWitness ): “We’ve already had dinner at Bruno’s house with all the Portuguese, the three from United and the three from City.
"Bruno has been here longer and I’ve been with him on more occasions.
"This year we haven’t gone so much because we have a very busy schedule, it’s much more complicated. Sooner or later we’ll all have dinner again.
“We send a few jokes, one side or the other side, but that’s normal. All very healthy. It’s like the national team: players from Benfica, Sporting and FC Porto are playing. There are jokes and such, but the atmosphere is healthy.”
It was the City players with the bragging rights back in November, as Cancelo and Bernardo combined at Old Trafford in a completely dominant 2-0 win for the Blues. United will have the chance to exact revenge in March at the Etihad, shortly before all six players will take part in a World Cup play-off, with Portugal having to get past Turkey, then either Euro 2020 winners Italy or North Macedonia to qualify for the tournament in Qatar.
