Poland vs Portugal: Preview and Prediction

By Kenneth Offor 

Poland vs Portugal,
Euro 2016: Quarter Finals,
Date: Thursday, June 30, 2016,
Kick-off: 20:00 UK Time,
Venue: Stade Velodrome (Marseille).

Poland and Portugal will continue their race for the European Championship at Stade Velodrome on 30/06/16 in the first quarter final game of the 2016 edition of European championship.

Poland qualified for the quarter final stage of the competition via a penalty shootout against Switzerland as the both team held out to 1-1 Stalemate after 120 minutes of action. The game recorded the first penalty shootout of 2016 edition of the tournament, and Poland came out victorious. Poland took the lead 5 minutes before half time through Jakub Blaszczykowski but Xherdan Shaqiri scored a beauty of a goal in the second half with an overhead acrobatic kick to take the game into extra 30 minutes. Unfortunately for Granit Xhaka he became the villain as he missed his spot kick to eliminate his team from the tournament. Lewandowski still needs to prove his worth as he has failed to impress in the first four games of this tournament, however he is still their only world class player and will be instrumental for their hopes of getting into final four.

Meanwhile Portugal have struggled in their last four games to get to this stage of the game, they have failed to grab a win the 90 minutes in their last four games of this tournament. Portugal played out a boring 0-0 draw with Croatia in 90minutes with no shots on target which took the game to extra time but the Portuguese struck the luck when Quaresma scored his 8th goal for his nation via Cristiano Ronaldo’s assist. Apart from two super goals he scored against Hungary, Ronaldo is yet to find his feet in this tournament as the teams expectation rests on his shoulders, but there is still chance he will pick up in this stage of the tournament as Portugal aims for their 4th semifinal Euro game in 5 attempts.

Poland: Team News

Wojciech Szczesny is Poland’s only missing player with injury, Fabianski will continue in post while Kapustka is back from one match ban.

Poland: Predicted Line-up (4-4-2)

Fabianski – Piszcsek, Glik, Pazdan, Jedrzejczyk – Blazczykowski, Krychowiak, Maczynski, Grosicki – Milik, Lewandowski

Portugal: Team News

Portugal have all their players intact with no injury reports or suspension, the coach may decide to present the same line of defense after they were able to keep a clean sheet in their last game.

Portugal: Predicted Line-up (4-4-2)

Rui Patricio – Soares, Pepe, Fonte, Gurrierro – Mario, Silva, Carvalho, Gomes – Nani, Ronaldo.

Poland vs Portugal: Head to Head Stats

Games between these two teams have always been a tough one, they have met in 10 previous games which Portugal have won 4 of the ties, Poland won 3 of the ties and remaining 3 went to draw.

The two teams have never met in the European championship game before, both teams will try their best to win a one as it is their first game on this platform.

The two teams played last in a friendly outing in 2012, the game ended in a 0-0 stalemate.

Poland vs Portugal: Prediction

Portugal are slight favourites in this fixture despite them falling short of expectations, they seem to lack team spirit but they have a lot of individual quality and talent in their team.

Poland on its own have what it takes to fight for victory in this fixture, they have the team spirit and seem to have a good back force which can hold off Cr7 and his cohorts, their only wish is for Lewandowski to pick up and the game will be theirs.

It will be hard to pick outright winners in this game, but I expect a win from the Portuguese side.