Portugal vs. North Macedonia Preview, Odds, Prediction

North Macedonia made a sensation in Italy, which is why they earned themselves a chance to reach the World Cup in Qatar. What they need to do now is to defeat Portugal on the road. Now, that is much easier to say than do, because the Portuguese unit is a massive favorite in this matchup. On the other side, the Italians were also, and look what happened. The whole world is speaking about the Macedonians and their heroic (and somewhat lucky) victory. Meanwhile, we’ll see how Ronaldo and the boys react to this unexpected rival, as we are more than sure that Selecao anticipated the clash with Italy.

Preview

Portugal (-400) was solid against Turkey, but we saw them losing focus in the late stage of the event. Luck was on the hosts’ side in this case, as Burak Yilmaz missed a penalty to tie the game and create severe problems for the Portuguese team.

After that, one fast counter-attack sealed the game, sending Selecao in the last stage of the WC qualifiers. A 3-1 triumph over Turkey was the first one following back-to-back games in which they haven’t won, vs. Ireland on the road, 0-0 and Serbia 1-2, at home.

In the past seven games at home soil, Portugal won six, and lost just that one against the Serbs, but this event eventually put them in the playoffs instead of directly in Qatar. In all but one victory, Ronaldo and the boys netted twice.

North Macedonia (+1100) made a shocking sensation in Germany around this time last year and after that, took down another former World and European champions in their own house. Only now, the stakes were much higher.

This country has a chance to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in its history, which would be an achievement nobody expected to see. Though, we need to say that Macedonia participated in this year’s EURO, not winning a point but still playing some good games.

They are looking solid at the moment, with three wins in a row, not allowing a goal in each, and it seems that their defense clicked in over the past few months.

Latest News

All the players on both ends are expected to be fit and ready for this event. According to the sources from the Macedonian media, their team is already in Portugal getting ready for the game.

Head to Head Games

Portugal and Macedonia met only twice in history, and both events were friendly international. The first in 2003 saw Selecao winning, 2-1, and the second in 2012, when we didn’t see any goals.

Prediction

Portugal is our pick here because we don’t think that the guests can withstand the pressure of their attackers. There is a big difference between Portugal’s offensive line and Italy’s. Simply, Azzurri is very, very gentle upfront, while on the other hand, Selecao has flamboyant players like Ronaldo, Felix and Jota. When one team defends against Portugal, it often ends up as a catastrophe for them. So our pick here is the hosts to win by at least a two-goal margin.

Pick: Portugal -1.5

Here is the preview for the game between Poland and Sweden.