Portugal vs Morocco FIFA World Cup 2018 – Lineups, Predictions & Stats Preview 20 June 2018

Portugal continues their World Cup journey with a less threatening opponent in Morocco, or at least it seems so. The Moroccans will give their best to stay in the tournament after the unfortunate loss to Iran after a 90th-minute own goal.

Portugal Probable Lineups and Stats

In Matchday 1 Portugal managed a draw with the fiercest competitors in group B, Spain. The match ended in a three all draw. All of their goals were scored by their Captain and arguably the greatest player in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Portugal Coach Santos F. will most likely maintain his starting team for the match against Morocco. The squad will consist of; Carvalho W., Fernandes B., Fonte J., Guedes G., Guerreiro, Moutinho, Patricio R., Pepe, Ronaldo C (C), B. Silva, Soares C. The Substitute bench will likely remain unchanged too.

On matchday 1, the team scored the fastest goal of the 2018 World Cup. The team did not see much the ball with possession of 38%, but they had good goal attempts of 8 shots, 3 of which were goals. The goalkeeper had 2 decent saves. The team was quite disciplined as only one player was booked. The team completed 318 of their 384 passes, a completion rate of 87%.

Morocco Probable Lineups and Stats

Matchday 1 saw Morocco lose 1-0 to Iran. The loss was despite all the prediction in favour of the Moroccan Team. For the larger part of the game, Morocco looked like the stronger team but a last minute own goal would see them end an 18 match undefeated streak. In the game, they had 63% possession of the ball with 13 attempts, but only 3 were on goal. The discipline was fair with only 1 player booked. 374 of their 462 passes were completed, an 80% completion rate. The goalkeeper remained untroubled with only 1 save. Though, against Portugal, he will be expected to be on top of his game.

Coach Renard H, will most probably field out the same starting lineup as that of matchday one. Besides, the substitute bench will also remain unchanged. The probable starting lineup will consist; Munir, Hakimi, Benatia, Swiss, Boussoufa, Ziyech, El Ahmadi, Harit, Amrabat, El Kaabi, Belhanda.

Portugal v Morocco – Head to Head

The last time the two teams met was a really long time, 1986. Morocco emerged winners with a 3-1 lead. Since then so much has changed and heading to their game in 2018 Russia World Cup finals there seems to be only one clear favourite. Additional tips, there will be many goals in the match. Also, any bright gamer can bank on Cristiano Ronaldo to deliver.

Expert Tip

This will be a very interesting game between Portugal and Morocco. We think that the Portuguese side will not be as productive as it happened in the game with Spain. There have been under 2.5 goals scored in 9 of Morocco’s previous 11 clashes in FIFA World Cup, while Portugal has scored at least 2 goals in 9 of the previous 10 games in FIFA World Cup. Moreover, the team of Portugal is undefeated in the past 10 meetings so far in this tournament.

Morocco had to attack looking to break Iran down in the first clash. They will play completely different this time out and we would not be surprised to see them perform very well and even get a result here. Moroccan’s defensive line shipped no goals in all in six qualifying encounters en route to the World Cup 2018. Our expectations in this meeting are the Portuguese will Win to Nil, have no more than 10 corners in the match and another very interesting bet for this game is Portugal Win & Under 3.5 goals.

Interesting Facts and Information

  • Portugal haven’t lost in their last 4 games.
  • Portugal wins 1st half in 50% of their games, Morocco in 52% of their games.
  • Both teams haven’t won their last game in World Cup.
  • Morocco’s recent performance is better than Portugal’s.
  • In World Cup, Portugal has better performance than Morocco.
  • The winner of their last meeting was Morocco.
  • On their last meeting Morocco won by 2 goals.
  • Portugal scores 2.09 goals when playing at home and Morocco scores 1.4 goals when playing away (on average).
  • When Portugal leads 1-0 at home, they win in 66% of their games.
  • When Morocco leads 0-1 away, they win in 100% of their games.
  • When Portugal is down 0-1 home, they win 40% of their games.
  • When Morocco is down 1-0 away, they win 100% of their games.

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