Portugal vs Iceland Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Joel Amorim Jun 10, 2016 @ 01:56 am

Next Tuesday, 14th of June 2016, a super motivated Portugal will measure forces with debutants Iceland at Stade Geoffroy Guichard in Saint-Etienne for the second match of Euro 2016 Group F.

After losing at Wembley to England (Portugal played a long period of time with just 10 men, consequence of Bruno Alves’ red card at the end of first-half), the Portuguese team managed to pull rank to hammer Estonia by 7-0 at Lisbon last time out. Quaresma and Cristiano Ronaldo took the reins of the team and led them to an historical win over Magnus Pehrsson’s team, who despite the heavy loss, managed to withstand the Portuguese attacking avalanche for about 36 minutes. The performance of Besiktas’ flamboyant winger left Portugal fans purring for more as Quaresma netted another spectacular goal before the end of first-half lobbing the ball over Londak in a superb class act.

Portugal have been heavily punished by injuries before the European championship, losing FC Zenit’s playmaker Danny, AS Monaco’s wonder boy Bernardo Silva and Fábio Coentrão along the way.

Fernando Santos, who replaced an heavily criticized Paulo Bento early in the Qualification campaign, has managed to change Portugal’s DNA, not only by implementing a new tactical approach but also by “gathering the troops”, who were completely scattered before his arrival. As for Iceland, they have to be credited for their spectacular Qualification campaign, during which they finished second behind the Czech Republic with 20 points from 10 and just two defeats along the way.

Led by the Wales based duo Gylfi Sigurdsson and Aron Gunnarsson, Iceland are usually a tough bone to chew and will most certainly give Portugal a hard day on the job out there. After losing to Norway by 3-2 early this month, the Icelandic team pulled off a strong comeback when they played against Liechtenstein last Monday winning the match by 4-0.

It is important to highlight, nevertheless, that after clawing a place at Euro 2016, Iceland did struggle to pull off a decent performance in the majority of matches they took part in, losing six of those nine clashes.

Portugal

Stats: W-3 L-2 D-0

Recent Form - WLWWL

Iceland

Stats: W-2 L-3 D-0

Recent Form - WLWLL

Possible Line-ups

Portugal (4-4-2) – Rui Patricio - Vieirinha - Pepe - Ricardo Carvalho - Eliseu - Danilo - Moutinho - André Gomes - João Mário - Nani - Ronaldo

Iceland (4-4-2) – Kristinsson - Saevarsson - Ingason - R. Sigurdsson - Skulason - Gunnarsson - G. Sigurdsson - Bjarnason - Gudmundsson - Sigthorsson - Bodvarsson

Injury List / Suspended Players

Portugal - Quaresma (in doubt)

Iceland - None

Head-to-head matches:

League Positions