Portugal vs Iceland Preview

Portugal will look to wrap up their European Championship qualification journey with a win when they welcome Iceland to the Estádio José Alvalade this Sunday.

The hosts have had an impeccable qualification campaign, having won all their matches while scoring 34 goals and conceding just two. Their last outing–a 2-0 win over Liechtenstein–was their eighth clean sheet in this qualifying campaign, proving that Roberto Martinez’s men are a force to reckon with both in defence and attack.

With qualification already secured since last month, Portugal fans who will watch their team play in Lisbon will be hoping for a goal-fest to wrap up this stage of the competition. They can expect that to happen given that they have the Euro qualifiers joint-top scorer in their ranks. Cristiano Ronaldo has scored ten times in this qualifying cycle and will be eager to add to his already incredible goal tally.

Meanwhile, Martinez’s men have only lost one Euro qualifier game on home soil this century (W17, D6) so they have every reason to be confident.

Visitors Iceland therefore face one of the toughest challenges in international football when they travel to Lisbon, especially as they have lost all of the previous three qualifier H2Hs, conceding nine goals in the process.

And although automatic qualification to the finals in Germany is already out of reach, Åge Hareide’s side could have a second chance in the play-offs in the spring thanks to their Nations League exploits.

But this match predictably has one result according to oddsmakers–a win for Portugal–given that Iceland have conceded 3+ goals in three of their last four qualifier away games, including a bruising 4-2 reverse to Slovakia on Thursday.