Portugal vs. Republic of Ireland Preview, Odds, Prediction

Portugal and the Republic of Ireland face off at Estadio Algarve in one of the most interesting World Cup qualifying matches this Wednesday. All the eyes will be pointed towards Cristiano Ronaldo, who recently came back to Manchester United and amazed the world, outshining Lionel Messi and his move to Paris Saint Germain. We are yet to see the Portuguese superstar playing for the Red Devils, but in the meantime, his appearance for Selecao will be enough. As for the Irish side, they’ve opened the qualifiers disastrously, losing both of their events.

Preview

Portugal (-485) didn’t fulfill the expectation at the recent EURO 2020. Selecao finished its run already in the round of 16 against Belgium, putting an end to one very traumatic campaign. At first, Fernando Santos’ side was more than impotent in the group stage, losing to Germany 2-4 despite taking the lead, and then playing 2-2 against France. Their defense, which was the best part of the team, was very vulnerable, and that is a trend dating in the last year or so.

Selecao allowed goals against Luxembourg, 1-3, and Serbia, 2-2, beating just Azerbaijan, 1-0 while keeping clean sheets. That is in these World Cup qualifiers.

Santos will have his full squad at disposal, and we can expect to see the Portuguese team highly motivated at home, eager to erase the recent negative results.

Republic of Ireland (+1600) is wandering around for the last two years. Since the start of 2020, they played 14 games, winning only once, and that was a friendly international against Andorra in June this year, 1-4. Prior to that event, Ireland played 1-1 with Qatar, afterward, without goals against Hungary.

All in all, this is a team that really doesn’t have any system in its game and relies upon running and set pieces. Stephen Kelly’s guys are very dull in front of the rival’s net, not being able to hit the target in nine of those 14 matches we’ve mentioned.

The defense is tough until it allows the first goal. After that, it usually cracks wide open and gives the opponents enough space for more scores.

Latest News

Joao Felix, Renato Sanches, and Jose Fonte are not on the team for this international break. Ronaldo is chasing the 110th international goal, which would give him another record-breaking milestone.

The Republic of Ireland is coming to Portugal with all the important players at Kelly’s disposal.

Head to Head Matches

The most recent clash between these sides was in 2014 when Portugal humiliated Ireland, 5-1 in a friendly international game.
But overall, the score between these nations is neutral – two wins and two draws for each side.

Prediction

We are more than sure that the Irish team would be very pleased to get back home with an honorable defeat, let alone one point in its bag. As said before, Portugal is very motivated to win this match, preferably with three or four goals scored. Selecao to win with a -1.5 goals handicap is our pick for this contest, as the odds for that sit at -125. It is a realistic outcome from this point of view.

Pick: Portugal -1.5

Here is the preview for the match between Denmark and Scotland.