Portugal beat Hungary 3-0 in Budapest in their opening game, thanks to 3 very late goals including 2 for Cristiano Ronaldo. In that game Portugal had 70% possession, 11 shots with 7 on target, 6 corners and they were given 1 yellow card. Germany lost 1-0 to France in their opening game where they had 62% possession, 5 corners, 1 yellow card and 10 shots with just 1 on target.
The referee for this game is Anthony Taylor (England), this season he has refereed 37 games, where he has given 113 yellow cards and 4 red cards, for an average of 3.05 yellow cards per game and 0.11 red cards per game. In his career he has been in charge of 342 games, giving 1182 yellow cards and 53 red cards, for an average of 3.46 yellow cards per game and 0.15 red cards per game.
Germany know that losing this game means they can practically kiss goodbye to the knock out rounds, and will complete an unwanted double of having gone out at the group stage in the last world cup and this euros back to back. Portugal know that a win will guarantee them a spot in the knock out rounds, and likely set up a winner tops the group tie with France in the last round of group games. Germany controlled the game against France in terms of possession, but they failed to do anything with that possession and having just 1 shot on target will be a massive concern. They looked to run out of ideas at time in attack and there really weren’t that many moments of genuine concern for the French side. The one positive Germany would not be massively upset with their defensive display against France, despite needing the offside flag to disallow a kylian Mbappe strike, the only goal was an own goal. Portugal have a star studded team, but they needed every minute of the 90 to assert their dominance against Hungary as at 83 minutes they looked to be heading towards a 0-0 draw. Portugal at time look to be a team of individuals in attack, its understandable with players like Bruno Fernandes and Cristiano Ronaldo both used to being the centre of attention, but to beat the big nations they will need to pull together and play as a team to get over the line. When they attack as a unit and are unselfish, there are not many teams at this tournament who could live with them, as was shown in Cristiano Ronaldo’s 2nd goal which came after a lovely sequence of 1 and 2 touch football. A draw for I feel both teams will go for the win here, a win for Germany still gives them a great chance of qualifying for the later rounds of the tournament as they have Hungary left to play in their last group game. Portugal will surely want to get the job done today, as the prospect of a last group game against France where they will have to avoid defeat to go through is not an appealing proposition, though by that time there is a good chance France will have already qualified which will help their cause. With this amount of attacking talent on show its hard to see both teams not scoring in this one, and its sure to be a real test of this Germany side with all the pressure on them to avoid defeat. I see an entertaining game that ends 2-2 between the sides and sets up nervy last round of group games for both.
