Portugal vs Switzerland Preview

Portugal and Switzerland will battle for a place in the quarter-finals round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup when both sides meet at the Lusail Iconic Stadium this Tuesday.

The European heavyweights qualified for this round of the tournament as group winners thanks to two wins over Ghana and Uruguay, before a 2-1 win in their last game.

Those results meant that they have qualified for two consecutive World Cup knockout rounds after failing to do so in Brazil in 2014. Ahead of this tie, they have lost only one of their last four games against Switzerland and so should feel confident about getting a result.

However, Fernando Santos’ men must learn from past mistakes, considering the last two times the Seleção made it past the group stage at the World Cup (2010 and 2018), their journey immediately ended in the round of 16.

Switzerland will look to make it back-to-back wins over Portugal after beating them when both sides met in June in the Nations Cup.

Murat Yakin’s men booked their place in this stage of the tournament courtesy of a 3-2 win over fierce rivals Serbia in the last game of their group. They won two of their group games to finish second in the group albeit on goal difference.

After the game, head coach Murat Yakin said that his side “will gladly take on Portugal with the ambition to worry them as much as possible”.

He will hope that his side can produce the same brave performance they did against Serbia and Brazil in the group stage as they attempt to finally end a run of four straight defeats in the Round of 16.