Portugal vs Iceland

Portugal will be looking to make history at the Estádio José Alvalade when they meet Iceland in their ultimate Euro 2024 qualifying contest.

It took the Euro 2024 qualifying campaign’s most prolific nation over one half to penetrate Liechtenstein’s defense in the penultimate round, yet inspired by Cristiano Ronaldo’s deadlock-break, Portugal claimed a 2-0 win to get to the cusp of history. Having won all nine matches in Group J, the ‘Selecao’ could achieve a first-ever perfect Euros qualifying cycle. After winning three of their four previous encounters against Iceland (D1), including a narrow 1-0 triumph in the revere fixture, Roberto Martinez’s men look well-placed to see off this final obstacle. Virtually unplayable on home turf, the Euro 2016 winners have only lost once in 24 home Euro qualifiers in the 21st century (W17, D6), increasing the likelihood of another good result.

In the meantime, Iceland’s mini-revival in another busted attempt to reach a major tournament came too little too late as they had gone unbeaten in three straight Group J matches (W2, D1) before slumping to a 4-2 defeat at Slovakia in midweek. Bereft of confidence, yet with nothing but pride left to play for, the visitors take this trip desperate to salvage some pride after conceding 3+ goals in three of their last four Euro qualifiers on foreign soil. If anything, they’ll at least hope to trouble the scoreboard after finding the back of the net in five consecutive Euro qualifying games since losing to Portugal in the reverse H2H.