Portugal take on the visitors Finland in a Friendly International match. The match will be played on Tuesday, June 4th at Estádio José Alvalade (Lisbon).
Portugal showed excellent football under the current coach but had a setback in the spring. The Chosen Ones had been playing under the guidance of Fernando Santos for a long time. This pragmatic coach led them to the greatest successes in their history, winning Euro 2016 and the inaugural Nations League. Even at the World Cup in Qatar, they achieved a decent result by reaching the quarterfinals. However, everything turned against the experienced specialist: losing in the quarterfinals not to a top team but to Morocco, frequently leaving the local hero Ronaldo out of the starting lineup, and it seemed like the coach simply wore out his welcome. In any case, his era ended somewhat unceremoniously. A relatively young Roberto Martinez was chosen as his successor, and he started brilliantly, winning all 10 qualification matches last year. But this year, after an impressive 5-2 victory over Sweden, they unexpectedly lost in Slovenia, failing to respond to the two goals scored by their opponent.
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Finland were at the last Euro, marking the national team's debut at this level. However, in subsequent cycles, the team has performed at best like a mid-tier team. Nevertheless, there was still a loophole: the Nations League path. But in that, Kanerva's men immediately and without a chance, lost 4-1 to Wales in Cardiff. Now, official matches will only resume in the autumn with the Nations League. Markku Kanerva was expected to experiment with the squad and tactics. Indeed, he left several well-known and experienced players out of the squad, including Uronen. On the other hand, Pukki is arriving from North America, though it might seem unnecessary to test such an experienced goalscorer who has recently joined Minnesota for a final stint.
There have been 8 head-to-head matches in history, and once, in 2002, the Finns even won. However, Portugal has clearly dominated with 5 victories, including in both of the most recent games. Though those games took place quite a while ago, in 2009 and 2011. The Chosen Ones are much stronger and are playing at home, while the visitors have no specific objectives. Simply on class alone, Roberto Martinez's team should be able to win with a -2.0 goal handicap.
Prediction for the match: Portugal to win with -2.0 handicap.
