Portugal vs Spain Prediction & Betting Tips - World Cup

Prediction published on 11/06/2018, 23:46  by Valeria Di Meglio | Modified on 18/06/2018 at 04:40 in World Cup Predictions

It's a match that would be worthy of a World Cup final but we get to see Spain take on European champions Portugal in matchday 1 of Group B.  Spain have already had to get past Italy in the qualifiers and now take on neighbours Portugal in what should be the game that decides who wins the group. The top two teams playing in the opening fixture is never an easy situation. If either side drops points, that puts a lot of pressure on them for the second game of the group as Spain discovered in 2010 when losing their opener to the Netherlands. Spain finished five points clear of Italy in their qualifying group and only dropped points in a 1-1 draw with the Italians. They are unbeaten in their last 20 games and last lost when being knocked out of the European Championships by Italy two years ago. This year has seen them demolish Argentina 6-1 and an away draw with World Champions Germany. Their squad is packed with experience with five players having over 90 caps and as usual their midfield looks frightening with Isco, who scored a hat-trick against Argentina, and David Silva.

Portugal are bidding to do what Spain did in the past and become the World and European Champions at the same time. They lost their opening game in the qualifiers away in Switzerland but then won the next nine to top the group and doing so by an aggregate score of 32-2. Cristiano Ronaldo scored 15 goals in the qualifiers and he will be the key player for them of course. Over 90 minutes they have only lost one of their last 18 games and excluding friendlies have one loss in 22. It's not all about Ronaldo with Goncalo Guedes scoring twice in their final warm-up game against Algeria and Andre Silva has 12 goals in his 23 internationals for Portugal. This isn't easy to predict, especially as it's the first game of the tournament, go for the match to end in a draw.