You’d imagine Ronaldo would be shelved for this one after his Champions League final exertions. Pepe, too, probably. On the England end, excitement is mounting, but this is still a team which, in my opinion, doesn’t inspire confidence at the back. They have plenty of options going forward and some exciting young players. Scoring goals against any opponent isn’t likely to be too much of a problem for this England side, but defensively they seem to be lacking quality.
Portugal, on the other hand, have an interesting mix of young talent and veterans who are gifted but inconsistent. The mercurial Ricardo Quaresma is the perfect example of this. The bookies have gone hard on a low-scoring match, but I actually think we’ll see the opposite here, especially when we consider England’s defending and the fact that each of their last four games has seen over 2.5 goals. Portugal’s last two game have also see three or more goals go in. All in all, over 2.5 goals, at odds of 11/8, looks a really good bet in this one.