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Another interesting match in Group F of Euro24, Portugal are being tipped by numerous pundits to lift the trophy in what must surely be Ronaldo’s last international tournament.
The Portugal manager, Roberto Martinez, has had adequate time to prepare for this competition, winning all ten of the qualifying matches, scoring 36 goals and conceding only 2 in the process.
Czech Rep are certainly no slouches, losing only one qualification match they must be confident that they will do well and don’t forget, this is a team which are notoriously difficult to beat.
Odds and Predictions
The skinny odds of 1.53 mean Portugal will be a popular tip choice to win this game, but we are not so sure.
It would be a tall order for Czech to win, but we can easily see this game ending in a draw, 4.2 is a very decent price, the 1 – 1 scoreline at 8.50 an even better price and that would be one of our predictions for this game.
Ronaldo will be a popular choice in the goalscorer market but we have an alternative in the Manchester United midfield maestro Bruno Fernandes.
Always willing to have a shot from anywhere, as well as being one of the first choices to take free kicks, we feel that the odds of 3.0 of him scoring at any time are too good to resist.
Comparison and Statistics from Past Meetings between the Teams
Portugal and the Czech Republic have played against each other head-to-head five times in their football history. Portugal has won four of these encounters, while the Czech Republic has won once.
Here are the H2H details of their matches:
| Past Meetings | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Sep 2022 | czech-republic | 0-4 | portugal | UEFA Nations League |
| 09 Jun 2022 | portugal | 2-0 | czech-republic | UEFA Nations League |
| 30 Jun 2012 | czech-republic | 0-1 | portugal | UEFA European Championship |
| 11 Jun 2008 | czech-republic | 1-3 | portugal | UEFA European Championship |
| 23 Jun 1996 | portugal | 0-1 | czech-republic | UEFA European Championship |
Expected Line Ups
You just know Ronaldo will be in the news during this tournament, probably for his outstanding performances, but the press will follow his every move so don’t be surprised to see a few fabricated stories along the way.
Look at some of the other names in the Portugal line-up, Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva, who has performed with such majestic quality throughout the season, Rúben Dias, Diogo Dalot, this is a side full of quality.
As for the Czech Rep, they are definitely up against it in this competition, but there always seems to be a quiet confidence about them which could frustrate a Portugal side who usually like to have things their own way.
Portugal (4-3-3): Diogo Costa; Diogo Dalot, Rúben Dias, Danilo Pereira, João Cancelo; Vitinha, João Palhinha, Bruno Fernandes; Bernardo Silva, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rafael Leão.
Czech Republic (4-3-3): Matej Kovar; David Jurasek, Jakub Brabec, David Hranac, Tomáš Kalas; Tomáš Souček, Michal Sadílek, Antonín Barák; Adam Hložek, Patrik Schick, Jan Kuchta.
How Far Will These Teams Progress in the Tournament?
The ‘Ronaldo factor’ means that Portugal will do very well, in our opinion, a position in the semi-finals is well within their reach.
Whether they can make it to the final is a different matter, it will be interesting to see how they cope with injuries, but this could very well be a successful tournament for Portugal.
We think it will be a tight one for the Czech Rep, but we believe Turkey will qualify from this group with Portugal, so the group stages of Euro 24 will be the end of the road for the Czech Republic side.
