Portugal vs Spain 08/10/20

08 October 2020

A neighborhood derby between Portugal and Spain that will take place at the Estádio José Alvalade this midweek sees the home side looking to extend an unbeaten run in H2H meetings (90 minutes only) to four (W1, D2).

The hosts have been nothing short of outstanding recently, picking up four consecutive triumphs, each via at least a two-goal margin. Additionally, Portugal’s last home defeat dates back to March 2018 (3-1 loss to the Netherlands), with ‘A Seleção’ winning seven of 12 such fixtures since (W7, D5). Remarkably, five of those seven triumphs were ‘to nil,’ with four of them yielding a full-time margin of over 2.5 goals. Indeed, free-scoring Portugal have found the back of the net in both halves in four of their last five home outings, netting an intimidating average of 3.4 goals across those matches. Fernando Santos can hope to see his men maintaining their goal-scoring form here, as they take on a side they’ve scored 3+ goals against in two of their last three H2H meetings.

As for the visitors, they have racked up a stunning 13-game unbeaten run going into this trip (W10, D3), beating their rivals on the day via at least a three-goal margin on six of those occasions. Moreover, ‘La Furia Roja’ have bagged over 3.5 goals in three of their previous four matches (W3, D1), conceding only once in the process. Away from home, though, Luis Enrique’s men have played out three consecutive draws, with each yielding the identical 1-1 scoreline and seeing the equalizing goal come beyond the 90-minute mark. Indeed, Spain have now failed to keep a clean sheet in eight of their last nine road fixtures, although they’ve conceded over 1.5 goals only once across that period.