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Portugal v. Morocco Stadium: Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow (Capacity: 78,011) https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/match/300331511/#match-liveblog Game time: Local (Moscow) 15:00 GMT: 1:00 Eastern (United States/Washington, DC): 8:00
Should be a good match as both teams are gonna play for the win. Definitely nervous as a Portugal supporter.
I think because each team needs the win, they will be a bit cautious. Portugal is not done with a tie..but would definitely want Spain to beat Iran in that circumstance. Looks like Andre Silva will be starting tomorrow.. not sure how we gonna line up, but thats the rumour.
This is the most important match in this group after Spain vs Portugal. Morocco can get a draw or cause an upset if they put their heart to it.
We have to at our Best, we are simply not good enough to take it easy and win. Ronaldo had maybe his Best game for Portugal whilst many players had sub par to bad games but it was against a Spanish side with something to prove. Morocco Will ofter diferent challenges Maybe, but everyone expected Portugal to bunker like 2010 against Spain and we went on the attack from the whistle which gave us the first goal. A draw would complicate matters but Iran is going to Play the Same against us win, draw or lose against Spain at least from the start and if needed open up towards the end, there is going to be no surprises there in the general tactics. So if we win, draw or lose against Morocco the big picture Will be the Same for the last game. I do not know Moroccan football well, but though Morocco might start a bit cautious, the set up is possesion in attack, I do not see Morocco trying to bunker. Morocco lack a clinical striker, basically us without Ronaldo and so tend to Play well and create chances without putting them away. However our defense is the weakest it hás been in years with Fonte out of form for long time now and Alves hardly playing for Rangers, Guerreiro being injured throughout the season and Cédric being a solid old school RB but nothing spectacular. Most people expect André Silva to start who with Ronaldo, both Will cause a aerial threat, unfortunately Cédric is not a great crosser and Guerreiro hás been explained above. So the killer ball with have to probably come from Bernardo or Mário/Moutinho. I do not think Bruno Fernandes Will start nor Adrien who hás had only a half a season and was injured not long ago. I expect this line-up: .................Patrício....... Cédric....Pepe...Alves....Guerreiro ............Moutinho...Carvalho... ......................Mário............. Bernardo.......................Ronaldo ......................A. Silva............. Alves might be replaced with Fonte or Dias. Mário might be replaced by Bruno Fernandes (unlikely) A. Silva might be replaced by Guedes (not that unlikely).
i wouldnt be that surprised if ricardo pereira started either. better crosser into the box and i expect lots in this game. he is also better on the overlap which may be useful to beating that back line.
He is no doubt a better attacting RB, as is all our other options, (Semedo/Cancelo who are not in the squad). However in his last game he was very weak and Morocco could exploit his forward runs/lack of experience. I would not go with this option and I think Santos who is a pragmatic coach Will not either, if we need goals then yes.
I disagree. I think the other match is more important. If Iran can pull out a draw, that puts them in a good place to advance. I really think in this match, Portugal will win without issue.
After Iran's win over Morocco, I think Morocco is as good as out. Even a draw would not have been enough that game. I think Morocco didn't cope with that pressure of winning well enough in the end. And the same pressure is now on them against Portugal, which to me suggest they'll crumble to it again. I think Portugal can afford to draw here, Morocco can't. Since Morocco will need to win, they'll likely feel the need to come out swinging and attempt to grab something in the hopes they can catch Portugal a little flat footed. It would certainly give them hope and strength to build upon and sow doubt among the Portuguese. In my view, the game might very well be decided for Morocco in the first 15 minutes. They must prevent Portugal from controlling the match and they must basically do what Japan did to Colombia by going long and direct in the early goings to hopefully catch their opponents on the wrong footing. It seems to me to be their only hope. If they fail to do this, then the game will likely slip away from them. Portugal are under far less pressure to win and will likely approach the match more cautiously. They need to improve upon some areas from their last game and build further confidence in themselves. Also Portugal will be looking to preserve themselves so that they have enough in the tank to dig deeper in the latter stages of the tournament. A 1-0 or 2-0 win would be a very good result for them here. Morocco also runs the risk of falling apart at the seams. Portugal could win by a larger margin and I suspect Ronaldo is coveting a golden boot, so he might be really hungry to score. It's hard to imagine them getting anything less than a solid win from this game, but I suppose it's plausible given that Japan beat Colombia against similar odds.
Should be a great game. A Morocco win would make things really , really interesting. They have the talent to win but... .....Cristiano is going to Cristiano. (And the rest of Portugal is not too shabby either.)
Morocco: El Kajoui, Hakimi, Da Costa, Benatia, Ziyach, El Ahmadi, Belhanda, Boutaib, Boussoufa, N.Amrabat e Dirar Portugal: Rui Patrício; Cédric Soares, Pepe, José Fonte; Guerreiro; Carvalho, Moutinho, Mário e Bernardo; Guedes e Ronaldo.
Only one change for Portugal from the Spanish encounter, Mário replaces Bruno Fernandes. We are going head to head with Morocco it seems. Dirar is back for Morocco and speculation that he Will be head to head with Ronaldo to try and neutralize him.
Morocco and Portugal have only played each other once before: World Cup México 1986 Group F (Morocco, Poland, England, Portugal) Morocco 3 (Khairi 19 + 26, M. Krimau 62) Portugal 1 (Diamantino 80) Group F Morocco (4) England (4) Poland (3) Portugal (2) * 2 points for a win and 1 for a draw.