Portugal vs Republic of Ireland

Overwhelming favorites to maintain an almost perfect start to their World Cup Qualifying campaign, Portugal play host to the out-of-sorts Republic of Ireland at the Estádio Algarve.

Although Cristiano Ronaldo’s availability for this international break hangs in the balance, the hosts are confident of maintaining their unbeaten run in the ongoing World Cup Qualifying campaign (W2, D1). Portugal came from behind to beat Luxembourg 3-1 on the road in their most recent qualifying fixture after leading at half-time in consecutive such contests beforehand. Despite suffering their earliest-ever European Championship finals exit back at Euro 2020, Portugal’s competitive home form since the turn of 2020 must be filling Fernando Santos with confidence (W3, L1). Notably, two of those three victories yielded a full-time margin of precisely three goals. Also, ‘A Seleção’ have never lost a competitive home meeting with Ireland (W1, D1), though it’s worth noting that their last such encounter dates back to October 2000.

In the meantime, Ireland’s hopes of securing a place at the World Cup finals for the first time since 2002 have been dampened by an underwhelming start to their qualifying campaign (L2). That, coupled with a return of one win from five games since the beginning of 2021 (D2, L2), douses any ember of optimism that they can snatch away some points here. By extension, a 4-1 victory at lowly Andorra back in a friendly meeting in June remains Ireland’s solitary success in 13 internationals since the turn of 2020 (D6, L6). Away from home, the ‘Boys in Green’ have failed to win any of their last eight competitive fixtures (D3, L5), frustratingly drawing a blank on five occasions in the process.