In the European group stage of the World Cup preliminaries, Portugal defeated Armenia with a score of 9-1. In this game, Borges came on as a substitute in the second half and became the 14th player to make his debut for the Portuguese national team under Robert Martinez. Since Ronaldo was suspended for this game, Borges wore the former's exclusive No. 7 jersey when he came on the field.
The last time a player made his debut for Portugal was in November last year, when Tomas Araujo, Thiago Jallow and Fabio Silva all played for the national team for the first time. During this international match, Martinez also called up Giovanni Kunda from Sporting CP and Rodrigo Moura from Porto, but these two teenagers failed to get a chance to play.