Despite all their attacking quality, Portugal went goalless in 120 minutes in their semifinal against Chile. It was the first time the European champs were shut out in the tournament. They also failed to convert any of their three penalties as they fell 3-0 to Chile in the shootout.
The Portuguese will now be without their main man, Cristiano Ronaldo, for the third-place game against Mexico after he returned to Portugal to be with his new-born twins. That will obviously be a huge blow to manager Fernando Santos, but he’ll still have some very good options in attack.
Veteran wingers Ricardo Quaresma and Nani were both subs in the semifinal and one of them will likely take Ronaldo’s place in the starting lineup against Mexico. Quaresma opened the scoring in Portugal’s 2-2 draw against Mexico in the tournament opener. Meanwhile, rising stars Bernardo and Andre Silva will be big threats down the middle.
On the other end, the Portugal defense has improved since they conceded those two goals against Mexico. The Portuguese have kept three consecutive clean sheets in the tournament.
Mexico went out pretty meekly in the semifinals as they were trucked 4-1 by tournament favorites Germany. The Mexicans conceded two very quick goals to Leon Goretzka within the first eight minutes and the game was basically over by that point.
To the Mexicans’ credit, they still created a ton of chances—26 shots overall, and eight on goal—but star striker Javier Hernandez had an off-day and it took them until the 89th minute to grab a consolation goal.
Mexico’s poor performance wasn’t a huge surprise considering the absence of starting center back Carlos Salcedo and the suspension of captain Andres Guardado. Salcedo’s replacement, Hector Moreno, was one of Mexico’s worst performers in the semifinal. While Salcedo is out for the tournament, El Tri will at least have Guardado back against Portugal.
Mexico needed an injury-time equalizer to grab a 2-2 draw with Portugal in their opening group game. However, they should like their chances to improve upon that result with Ronaldo now out of the lineup.
Writer’s Prediction
Even without Ronaldo, Portugal (+109) pick Mexico apart to comfortably win, 2-0.
