Mexico vs Portugal Prediction - Will Portugal Return To Wins After A Home Draw Against Greece?

Next Saturday, Mexico will go head-to-head with Portugal at the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on another friendly match that will serve both teams’ purpose of preparing the World Cup that is just around the corner.

Last weekend, Portugal didn’t manage to get anything better than a draw against Greece on their last match in Portuguese soil before the World Cup. Paulo Bento’s boys controlled the match during the first-half but were never very accurate when converting the chances created into goals. Without Cristiano Ronaldo, who is sidelined due to injury, the Portuguese team loses their main reference on the pitch and is forced to look for other solutions in order to decrease the team’s dependency on the Real Madrid’s powerful winger. Nevertheless, they are failing to find a way to achieve such. The team lacks firepower and that genius touch that Ronaldo often brings to the match, and with Nani and Vieirinha out of form, apparently no one is able to live up to the task.

For the match against Mexico, the Portuguese boss, Paulo Bento, will surely not rely on Ronaldo and Pepe’s contribution, since they are still struggling for full fitness, as he will also probably not be able to count on the Sevilla’s skilled goalkeeper Beto and on the all terrain midfielder Raúl Meireles, who are still recovering from their respective minor injuries.

As for Mexico, the match against Portugal is of major importance to restore the team’s morale after their defeat against Bosnia and Herzegovina last Tuesday. The tricolor side’s manager, Miguel “El Piojo” Herrera, looked very aggravated during the press conference at the end of the match because of the “last minute” changes on Bosnia’s line-up, who he accused of lacking fair play. It was the first defeat of Miguel Herrera at the helm of the Mexico side and the manager still has plenty of work ahead of him if he wants to, at least, walk through to the group stage on the World Cup tournament. Mexico put up some quality last 15 minutes, although the overall performance was slightly disappointing and Bosnia deserved the 1-0 win.

For the match against Portugal, Miguel Herrera will not be able to rely on the contribution from Luis Montes, who will miss the World Cup after the severe injury he suffered on the clash against Ecuador a few days ago.

Portugal might be considered favourites for the match, although, and considering both sides’ inconsistent performances lately, next Saturday’s clash might end up in a draw.

Mexico

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - LWWDD

Portugal

Stats: W-4 L-0 D-1

Recent Form - DWWWW

Possible Line-ups

Mexico (5-3-2) - Ochoa - Layun - Moreno - Salcido - Reyes - Ponce - Herrera - Vázquez - Guardado - Gio dos Santos  - Peralta

Portugal (4-3-3) - Rui Patrício - João Pereira - Neto - Bruno Alves - F. Coentrão - Moutinho - William - Miguel Veloso - Nani - Vieirinha - Hugo Almeida

Prediction: Mexico 1 Portugal 1