The last two teams to get their Euro 2024 tournament underway do so on Tuesday evening when the action remains in Group F for the clash between the 2016 winners Portugal and the finalists in 1996 in Czechia in Leipzig.
These two sides will be expecting to qualify from this group as the two strongest teams in it on paper. Portugal will have much loftier ambitions than that while Czech Republic will be looking to emulate the team of 1996.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the BBC1 channel in the UK with the build-up beginning at 7.35pm ahead of the 8pm kick off in Leipzig.
Portugal
Portugal will be the last of the supposed big guns in this tournament to get their campaign underway. They have seen everyone else in action and now get the chance to showcase their credentials, which it has to be said look very strong on paper. They were unbeaten in qualifying where they scored goals for fun and didn’t concede many and while you could question the strength of the group, you can’t argue with the emphatic nature that they dealt with it.
One of the reasons why Portugal are so fancied for this tournament is the strength of their attacking options. It isn’t just the strength of them it is the depth of them as well. They can basically field two front threes which are strong enough to do some damage in this tournament. There are doubts over the manager and whether Cristiano Ronaldo still has too much influence on proceedings but if those fears don’t come to the fore Portugal should be very tough to get the better of.
Czechia
Czechia had a bit of an underwhelming qualification campaign in comparison to some other teams in this competition but if we have seen anything over the course of the first week of the Euros it is that the qualifying record can largely go out of the window. That would make sense anyway with the last of the qualifiers being eight months ago but there is no doubt that Czechia will need to have found a little more fluency and consistency in their play if they are to achieve their aims here.
Czechia scored just 12 goals in their eight qualifying matches in a group which had Albania in first and Poland in third and neither of them have pulled up trees at the tournament yet. The positive for the Czechs is that they only conceded six goals in the group. The concern over whether they have enough goals in their side was eased a little in the warm ups for this event with them putting seven past Malta, but clearly the opposition is much tougher than that here.
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Team News
There will be a lot of attention on the Roberto Martinez team sheet for this match with all eyes on whether Cristiano Ronaldo is on it and if he is who the support cast around him will be. Ruben Dias is expected to be fit to feature at the back.
Czechia will be without Michal Sadilek for the tournament after an incident riding a bike means that he will be unable to play any part. The Czechs will be hoping that Patrick Schick can have the same impact that he had in the last Euros.
Betting
I have tried to avoid having strong opinions on the match outcomes in these opening fixtures but it is hard not to really like Portugal in this game. There are huge doubts over the strength of the Czechia qualifying group and when you look at this Portugal squad on paper it just looks one of the best in the competition and I would be surprised if they don’t get off to a winning start in this game. I am actually a little shocked that we can get the Portuguese on a -1 Asian line for this one.
We have seen all season that matches get affected from the bench more and more and that is the other reason to really like Portugal here. They could change their front three at any stage and not really weaken their team and that is a luxury to have. The Czechs certainly don’t have that sort of depth to call upon and if Patrik Schick doesn’t offer his best it is hard to see a real goal threat in the outsiders. Czechia were strong defensively in qualifying but there was nothing like a Portugal in that group. These two met in the most recent Nations League and Portugal won 2-0 and 4-0 and I expect something similar here.
Tips
Back Portugal (-1AH) to beat Czechia for a 3/10 stake at 1.89 with Bet365
