Iceland take on the visitors Portugal in the round 4 match of UEFA Euro Qualification. The match will be played on Tuesday, June 20th at Laugardalsvöllur (Reykjavík).
For a long time, Iceland were considered strong and tenacious, but still underdogs - what can you expect from a national team representing a distant northern island with a population comparable to a small regional center? However, in the middle of the last decade, a generation emerged that not only made their debut at Euro 2016 but also reached the quarterfinals. They even went to the World Cup and drew with Argentina. But that's where it ended - not only at the World Cup but overall. The team regressed to an average level, for example, in the last cycle, they achieved only 2 wins and 9 points in 10 matches. Furthermore, since September, after a 1-0 friendly victory against Venezuela, they couldn't even win against Saudi Arabia or Baltic teams, and most recently, they suffered a 0-3 defeat against Bosnia in March, at the start of the new qualification campaign. They finally won a match, and by a score of 7-0, but it was against Liechtenstein, a complete outsider. On June 17th, the Icelanders hosted Slovakia and even managed to lose 1-2.
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Portugal ended a long era under Fernando Santos. This coach was finally able to extract high results from the team's potential, leading them to victory in major tournaments. They unexpectedly won Euro 2016, defeating France in the final in Paris. They followed it up with a triumph in the inaugural edition of the UEFA Nations League. However, there haven't been any significant achievements since then. For example, they had to go through the playoffs to qualify for the 2022 World Cup, with victories against Turkey and surprisingly, North Macedonia, who eliminated the Italians. In Qatar, the Portuguese team didn't disappoint and not only advanced from the group stage but also demolished strong Switzerland 6-1 in the round of 16. However, they were subsequently defeated by Morocco, and combined with the decision to bench Ronaldo, it became a sentence for the experienced coach. He was replaced by Roberto Martinez, even though Martinez failed to advance with Belgium from the group stage of the previous tournament. In his new role, the Spaniard started with resounding victories, but nothing else was expected against opponents like Liechtenstein (4-0 at home) and Luxembourg (6-0 away). On Saturday, the team faced a tougher opponent, Bosnia, but they didn't cause any serious problems, and it ended 3-0 in favor of the hosts.
In the qualification for Euro 2012, the Portuguese won in entertaining matches against Iceland. However, in 2016, the debutant of the final tournament played a draw against the eventual winner, 1-1. Ronaldo and his team are much stronger, and the home advantage is unlikely to change that. We bet on an away victory with a handicap of "-1.5 goals scored."
Prediction for the match: Portugal to win with -1.5 handicap.
