Kick-off: 1900, 06/12/2022
Stadium: Lusail Iconic Stadium
TV: ITV
Portugal and Switzerland are familiar foes heading into their World Cup clash, having met three times in the Nations League in recent years.
The Navigators claimed convincing victories in the first two of those encounters, while the Swiss shaded the most recent match in June.
Home advantage proved crucial in each of those games, but on neutral territory in Qatar it is Portugal who are just preferred.
We’re taking 12/5 for them to prevail by any one-goal margin as our opening Portugal vs Switzerland prediction.
Portugal Odds
Portugal built up some strong momentum when starting out in Group H with wins over Ghana and Uruguay and led early on against South Korea.
However, a much-changed line-up paid the price for easing off as they were ultimately upset 2-1 by the Taegeuk Warriors.
“We lost our organisation, our focus, and Korea controlled more of the game,” said head coach Fernando Santos.
“We are upset. We finished first in the group, but we wanted to win, and we wanted a better game in order to increase the morale of the players.
“That said, they will not be unmotivated. I trust my team, but this result serves as a warning to them.”
Resting influential figures such as Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva and Joao Felix could still prove beneficial, though.
Switzerland could not afford the same luxury earlier on Friday and the fatigue factor could come into play if this is a tight tussle, as expected.
Looking at the Portugal vs Switzerland odds, we like 18/5 for Draw HT/Portugal FT.
Switzerland Odds
Switzerland were their usual workmanlike selves in edging out Cameroon 1-0 and when going down by the same scoreline versus Brazil.
It was a real surprise, therefore, to see a crucial encounter with Serbia open up and be a five-goal thriller.
At one point, Serbia looked poised to advance after Aleksandar Mitrovic cancelled out Xherdan Shaqiri’s opener and Dusan Vlahovic fired them ahead on 35 minutes.
However, Breel Embolo turned in an equaliser from close range and Remo Freuler’s strike three minutes after the break proved enough to earn the Rossocrociati a 3-2 triumph.
Swiss boss Murat Yakin commented: “They challenged us to the last minute and we had to really push our limits, but we’re very happy that we’re now moving onto the round of 16.”
This is a side well used to performing in big games, as they have made the knockout rounds of the past two World Cup tournaments and were quarter-finalists at last year’s European Championship.
In the Nations League, the Rossocrociati have avoided relegation from three straight A-level groups.
We expect them to revert to type and keep things tight early on here, so 29/20 for no goals in the first half is another Portugal vs Switzerland prediction.
Additional stats
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