The Confederations Cup is underway in Russia. The hosts got off to a good start with a win over New Zealand but now they’ll face a much tougher test. They’ll take on Portugal on Wednesday in an important soccer betting matchup. The Portuguese need a win after dropping two points in their first match.
What You Need To Know About Russia
The Russians opened the scoring on an own-goal, and then Fyodor Smolov scored after 69 minutes to give his country a 2-0 win over New Zealand, and Russia looked very good to open the tournament. They were dominant from the very beginning and never took their foot off the gas against New Zealand and it was great that they got three important points in the win, but they still have to play better against Portugal. It was good to get a goal from Smolov, who now has eight for his country as the Russians don’t have any players with more than 10 goals on their team.
What You Need To Know About Portugal
Portugal got goals from Ricardo Quaresma and Cedric Soares, but they were held to a 2-2 draw with Mexico because of poor defending on a late set piece. It was a good game for Cristiano Ronaldo, who started despite rumors that he was considering leaving Real Madrid, with whom he just won the Champions League for the third time, but he assisted on Quaresma’s goal, drawing a slew of attention from the Mexicans. Still, Portugal can’t be happy about allowing a goal in injury time from a header by Hector Moreno, which means they have one point now instead of three and this game because much more important than they expected it to be.
Outlook
Portugal has four wins and a draw in eight games with Russia, who won 1-0 at home in a friendly in November 2015. The last three games have been decided by a 1-0 scoreline with two going to Russia, and they would like to keep it at that type of scoreline because if they decide to try and run with Portugal, they could be in trouble. When it comes to talent, Portugal has far more, but they’re also not well disciplined, especially at the back and Russia would do well to sit back and try to catch Portugal on the counterattack. That being said, they’re going to be in tough to contain Ronaldo, who has a lot to prove at a tournament that he really doesn’t need to be at after a long and gruelling season with Real Madrid, but the Portugal captain looks better at this point in the year than he has in recent years and he will be a handful for Russia, who is going to devote a lot of resources to keeping him under wraps. That frees up other players like Quaresma, who has to take advantage of the space afforded to him by Ronaldo and Portugal should win this game as Russia really doesn’t have the firepower to hurt Portugal’s shaky back line. Look for Portugal to get the three points heading into their final game with New Zealand.
Soccer Betting Pick: Portugal
Want to bet on the Russia-Portugal matchup? Get the latest soccer betting odds at Shangri La.
