Portugal – Serbia

Portugal hosts Serbia in Group I of the Euro 2016 qualifiers, 4th round.

Portugal and Denmark seem to have escaped as the two teams that will qualify directly … they are ahead of Albania and way ahead of Serbia, but there is still everything to play for. Portugal played the same mediocre football in these qualies, heavily dependent on Cristiano Ronaldo, building every attack trough him. Portugal has two wins and 1 loss but scored only two goals … both by Ronaldo, who will again lead the lineup today.

Portugal lineup: Rui Patricio – Bosingwa, Pepe, Bruno Alves, Coentrao – Tiago, Moutinho, Carvalho – Nani, Danny – Cristiano Ronaldo

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Normally Serbia should be on the third place with 4 points, but they have been hit bad by the 3 point deduction after the incidents vs. Albania – leaving them tied for the last place with only 1 point. The visitors have a reasonably young team, trying to build a top side around the likes of Markovic, Mitrovic, Matic or Tosic … but are not yet at full potential and can be inconsistent with their football over the course of 1 match.

Serbia lineup: Stojkovic – Tosic, Ivanovic, Tomovic, Kolarov – Matic, Tosic, Petrovic, Duricic, Markovic – Mitrovic

It’s becoming common knowledge that Portugal has zero offensive power without Ronaldo and it is expected he will come to the rescue again today – these tight games vs. a good defensive team are exactly the kind of games which he wins for Portugal, because nobody else is able to. He might start as the most advanced forward today in front of Danny and Nani. Ronaldo was slightly disappointing for Real Madrid lately and will want to prove himself at international level … we saw what Bale (who was in the same situation) did yesterday for Wales.

Considering that he also takes penalties and free kicks for Portugal, my tip today will be Cristiano Ronaldo to score at anytime. I also think Portugal will eventually win the game. Correct score prediction: Portugal – Serbia 2-0.

Pick: Cristiano Ronaldo to score at anytime
Odds: 1.96 @ Unibet
Stake: 8
Possible profit: 7.68
Event date: 29 March