World Cup 2022 Portugal vs Ghana, Tips and Predictions

Despite some decent performances at major tournaments, Portugal always tend to be priced up generously in the World Cup betting odds. Fernando Santos’ side are always tough to beat and they begin their World Cup 2022 campaign against Ghana at Stadium 974 on November 24th.

Cristiano Ronaldo continues to dominate the headlines when it comes to Portugal’s World Cup campaign and the Manchester United icon has dismissed any talk of international retirement. Nevertheless, this is likely to be his final appearance at this tournament and he’ll be determined to lead his nation to glory in Qatar. Despite dropping points against both Serbia and the Republic of Ireland, Portugal enjoyed a relatively solid qualifying campaign and will arrive with plenty of confidence.

Ghana have been talked about as potential dark horses at the 2022 World Cup. The Black Stars reached the quarter final stage in 2010 and they will be looking to improve upon that seventh place finish. Although they’ve been drawn in a tough group, they do have plenty of top flight quality in their ranks with the likes of Thomas Partey, Inaki Williams and Tariq Lamptey all likely to feature. Ajax’s Mohammed Kudus is another player with Champions League experience.

If you’re thinking of backing Portugal to get off to a winning start, then you can back them at 1/2 with 10Bet. Ghana are dangerous opposition and are available at 11/2 with Betfred to spring an upset in the opening group game.

• Portugal and Ghana have met on just one previous occasion. They faced one another at the 2014 World Cup with Cristiano Ronaldo netting an 80th minute winner in a 2-1 victory.
• Portugal – Portugal have been regulars at this tournament in recent years, although they’ve failed to make it beyond the round of 16 in four of their last five appearances. Although they have plenty of firepower, they aren’t necessarily adept at the back and have conceded 13 times across their last two WC outings. Although they kept a number of clean sheets during qualifying, they did concede four times to Serbia across the two meetings and were also breached by ROI and Luxembourg.
• Ghana– Ghana failed to win in a single match during their last appearance at the tournament, however, they enjoyed a successful qualifying campaign in which they finished top of Group G and conceded on just three occasions. Their squad is young and there are plenty of players who can cause problems for the Portuguese defence.

Portugal were largely underwhelming at the 2018 World Cup and they didn’t completely convince during qualifying either. However, they have a knack of narrowly winning matches and having edged past Ghana in their only previous meeting, it could be a similar story here.

PORTUGAL TO WIN BY A 1 GOAL MARGIN

Portugal kept clean sheets against the perceived minnows during qualifying, but they couldn’t keep the better sides off the scoresheet. Ghana possess plenty of quality in the final third and have a number of players who will aiming to make an impression on the biggest stage. They should have enough to register.

BOTH TEAMS TO SCORE

This should be a fairly entertaining match-up and we could see at least a couple of goals. Despite being eliminated in 2014, Ghana netted in every single match.

2-3 GOALS

Portugal

Portugal won just one of their four matches at the 2018 World Cup and with Fernando Santos still at the helm, they simply must improve on those underwhelming performances. All eyes will be on Cristiano Ronaldo, who will be looking to better his total of four goals in Russia.

Key Players: Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes.

Team News: Diogo Jota will play no part in the tournament having picked up an injury earlier in the campaign. Pedro Neto is also absent. All eyes will be on how Fernando Santos deploys Cristiano Ronaldo and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him start this opening fixture.

Predicted Lineups: Rui Patricio, Joao Cancelo, Pepe, Danilo Pereira, Mario Rui, Ruben Neves, Vitinha, Bruno Fernandes, Cristiano Ronaldo, Bernardo Silva, Rafael Leao.

Ghana

Ghana’s XI will be pretty unrecognisable from 2014, however, they enjoyed a successful qualification campaign and will enter the tournament feeling confident. They were hugely entertaining eight years ago and have been touted as potential dark horses.

Key Players: Thomas Partey, Tariq Lamptey

Team News: Otto Addo hasn’t had a huge amount of time to work with his squad following his appointment, however, there is a decent nucleus of a squad which is likely to feature in this opener. There are question marks over the fitness of Kamaldeen Sulemana and Emmanuel Gyasi, however, both are far from guaranteed starters.

Predicted Lineups: Jojo Wollacott, Daniel Amartey, Abdul Baba Rahman, Tariq Lamptey, Alexander Djiku, Thomas Partey, Idrissu Baba, Mohammed Kudus, Jordan Ayew, Felix Afena-Gyan, Andre Ayew.

Portugal were involved in an entertaining 3-3 draw in their opening group match at Russia 2018 and although we aren’t expecting another six goal thriller here, this should be a very watchable 90 minutes. Both sides have plenty of attacking talent and we should see chances at both ends.

Bet on Both Teams to Score