Portugal will play Ghana in their opening World Cup 2022 Group H match on Thursday at Doha’s Stadium 974 in an effort to draw focus away from the endless Cristiano Ronaldo scandal.
In a difficult group, Fernando Santos’ team will also play Uruguay and South Korea, while their African counterparts will have a tough time progressing to the knockout rounds.
Recently, one man has dominated news stories both inside and outside of Portugal. Ronaldo, a former player for Manchester United, left Old Trafford after launching a verbal attack on the club in a meeting with Piers Morgan.
Ronaldo, a five-time Ballon d’Or winner, made an unexpected appearance at a media briefing earlier this week in order demand that attention be directed toward the soccer rather than his behaviour as he desperately tries to help Portugal finally win the big one after so many World Cup letdowns.
Portugal is a well-known footballing country, but despite this, they have only ever reached the World Cup semifinals two times, in 1966 and 2006, but they’ve not gone past the round of 16 in 4 from their last 5 tournaments.
La Selecao lost to fellow Group H rivals Uruguay in the round of 16 at the World Cup finals 4 years ago, and they have only managed to win 3 of their last 11 games there. However, they did a fantastic job of preparing for the tournament by thrashing Nigeria 4-0 in a friendly last Thursday.
Santos’s team has struggled to win any of their last 3 opening games on the biggest global stage, so fast starts hasn’t been a theme for Portugal at the World Cup. Ghana will need to put on their best scoring boots if they hope to get past a Portuguese defence that has only allowed two goals during their last seven games.
Followed by a brief nonattendance from the World Cup in 2018, Ghana is back in its place and already has their sights set on sweet vengeance in Group H. Uruguayan villain Luis Suarez has been waiting patiently for 12 years after funnelling his inner goalkeeper to keep the Ghana from making it to the semifinals.
Ghana is preparing for its fourth World Cup since 2006, and the African country has never previously been removed at the group stage. The two parties will pick up the conflict on December 2.
But that disheartening departure happened to come during their most recent performance in 2014, where they were eliminated without a victory. Earlier this year, before Otto Addo took over, the Black Stars also lost all 3 of their games at the AFCON.
Ghana enters the World Cup winning seven of their last eight matches across all competitions, keeping clean sheets in all those triumphs, and only losing to Brazil during that run. In a friendly match last week, they also outstandingly defeated Switzerland 2-0. Thoughts have been raised about the results since the summer.
Portugal and Ghana are familiar opponents at this level of football; Ronaldo assisted the La Selecao in a 2-1 World Cup victory over the Black Stars, and a similar showing here would aid him in his quest to once again cause controversy for the correct reasons.
Portugal Team News
Ronaldo, who has been embroiled in controversy off the field, missed Portugal’s victory over Nigeria due to illness, but the 37-year-old says he will be ready to play in Thursday’s opener.
Nuno Mendes has had a scare with an injury, but Santos should perhaps be working with a full strength team this week. Santos is faced with some good selection challenges, including those in goal, in which Diogo Costa will look to edge out Rui Patricio in a competitive race for the gloves.
Ronaldo and B. Silva can be counted on to play in the matchday squad with no real concerns. This leaves players like Joao Felix, Leao, Otavio, and Andre Silva to compete for the final attacking spot; the AC Milan starlet’s skill on the left side should be in his favour.
Portugal possible starting lineup:
Diogo Costa; Cancelo, Pepe, Dias, Guerreiro; Neves, Carvalho, Fernandes; Bernardo Silva, Christiano Ronaldo, Rafael Leao
Player to watch
Christiano Ronaldo
Kudus admitted this week that he was close to joining Everton in August, but if the 22-year-old keeps up his club form through the World Cup, bigger teams might be interested in signing him in January. His 10 goals for Ajax this season in six games, including four in the Champions League, are a career high. Due to the fact that Partey is in front of him and Williams is behind him, Kudus may be one to watch in Qatar.
Ghana Team News
Addo faces the best kind of selection difficulties after resting some important players in last week’s victory over Switzerland, similar to how he should have every player available for the opening game.
For instance, players like Partey, Sulemana, and Djiku who were benched for that game in which Andre Ayew and Jordan Ayew both started, will all hope to be back in the starting lineup.
Andre Ayew, who currently plays for Al-Sadd in Qatar, would make history if he played in this match by accruing the most World Cup appearances for an African player with eight, Sulemana and Williams, however, could be the early favourites.
Ghana possible starting lineup:
Ati Zigi; Lamptey, Amartey, Djiku, Baba; Partey, Abdul Samed; Sulemana, Mohammed Kudus, Jordan Ayew; Inaki Williams
Player to watch
Mohammed Kudus
Kudus admitted this week that he was close to joining Everton in August, but if the 22-year-old keeps up his club form through the World Cup, bigger teams might be interested in signing him in January. His 10 goals for Ajax this season in six games, including 4 in the Champions League, are a career high. Due to the fact that Partey is in front of him and Williams is behind him, Kudus may be one to watch in Qatar.
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