Portugal vs Ghana Prediction - Will Portugal Be Able To Win Their First Match In The Tournament?

Next Thursday, Portugal will go head-to-head with Ghana at Estádio Nacional in Brasilia on a match that gives both teams the opportunity of granting a place at the Round of 16 of the tournament.

After another bland performance against the USA, the Portuguese team are forced to beat Ghana and hope that Germany smash the US side if they to keep dreaming of a place at the next stage of the competition. The Portuguese side was reduced to dust on their first match against Germany and lost Pepe, one of their most important centre-backs, for the match against the American team because he was sent-off after headbutting Müller earlier during the first-half. Portugal never seemed to have fully recovered from that heavy defeat against the Germans and not even an early goal scored by Nani on the last Sunday’s clash against USA managed to lift the troops’ morale. Paulo Bento’s boys left the Americans get back into the match and on the 81’ minute they were already losing 2-1, after Dempsey netted in the US team second goal with his belly. When everything seemed lost for the Portuguese team, FC Porto’s winger Varela got the equalizer with a brave header already during injury time.

For the match against Ghana, Paulo Bento is not yet certain if he will be able to count on the contributions of Helder Postiga, Hugo Almeida, André Almeida, and Rui Patricio, all of them sidelined due to injury.

As for Ghana, the match against Portugal is also of paramount importance if they want to walk through to the next round of competition. Nevertheless, winning the match against Portugal might not be enough for them, since, as the Portuguese team, they need to win and wait for the German team to smash the US on their last match.

The African team put up a fantastic performance against the Germans last Saturday and somehow surprised Joachim Löw’s boys, who were certainly not expecting that Ghana could make such a damage at their solid defensive wall.

For the match against the Portuguese side, Ghana’s head coach, James Appiah, will not be able to count on the contribution of Muntari, one of his most influential midfielders, who is currently suspended, while there are still some doubts concerning the physical condition of the team’s versatile midfielder, Prince Boateng.

Despite their recent pallid and unconvincing performances, Portugal are to be considered favourites for the match against Ghana, although, if the African team manages to replicate their performance against Germany, they might, in fact, defeat the Portuguese team.

Portugal

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

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Ghana

Stats: W-1 L-3 D-1

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Possible Line-ups

Portugal (4-3-3) - Beto - João Pereira - Pepe - Bruno Alves - Veloso - Moutinho - R. Meireles - William - Nani - Varela - Ronaldo

Ghana (4-3-3) - Kwarasey - Opare - Asamoah - Mensah - Boye - Rabiu - Essien- Boateng - Ayew - Atsu - Gyan

Prediction: Portugal 2 Ghana 2