The European champions Portugal are handed the honour of opening up play in the sixth day of action in the World Cup when they go up against Morocco in a Group B clash which neither will want to lose.
Both teams failed to win their opening match so there is pressure on them to get three points on the board here to have things in their own destiny heading into the final games in their group next week.
Portugal
To be fair to Portugal they had it much the tougher of the two sides in the first match as they had to take on Spain and having twice led the Spanish in the first half it looked as though they were going to get off to a perfect start. It wasn’t to be as Spain showed their class in the second half but credit to Portugal for fighting back to level up late on.
There were positives and negatives for Portugal in that match. The positives were that they looked quite bright going forward and although much of their attacking play came through Cristiano Ronaldo they looked good with it. However at the back they looked very uneasy and vulnerable to anything resembling pace.
Morocco
You kind of got the feeling that Morocco were caught between the devil and the deep blue sea in their opening game against Iran. They began the match quite brightly but appeared to run out of ideas after half an hour. They didn’t really look in any trouble at any stage and then fell victim to the sucker punch when they put through their own net in injury time.
That is going to make qualifying from this group very difficult from here on in as they are going to need to beat either Portugal or Spain which is not going to be easy but at least they have little to lose now so they can have a real go at it. They have a good defensive structure which might serve them well but they could do with a little more invention up top.
Team News
Portugal are said to have a fully fit squad to choose from in this match but it could be that the experience of Bruno Alves is preferred to Jose Fonte at the back to make the European champions look a little tighter at the back.
Morocco are going to need to find someone to fill in at right-back as Nordin Amrabat has been ruled out through the concussion he sustained in a clash of heads against Iran in their opening match of the tournament.
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Betting
Morocco have to come out and play here because you would think they have to win this match to have any chance of making it through to the knockout stages and while that is a risky ploy given that it may well play into the hands of the star act Cristiano Ronaldo, needs must really.
We saw in that first match that the Portugal defence don’t look fantastic and in fairness Morocco showed glimpses of their talent over the piece against Iran. If they have a little more composure, and I’m not sure the Portugal defence will be as tough to break down anyway, then I see them scoring and the odds against on both teams to score looks the way forward to me.
Tips
Back Both teams to score for a 4/10 stake at 2.25 with Skybet
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