Portugal vs Serbia Match Analysis and Prediction

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Serbia are travelling to Lisbon on Sunday night as Portugal will strive to avoid defeat in order to be at the top of Group A so as to secure their position at the 2022 World Cup.

Fernando Santos’ team are coming into the contest off the back of a goalless draw with the Republic of Ireland that moved them above Serbia to top the section. The guests will need to win on Sunday if they are to take away first position from Portugal and claim an automatic qualification spot in the finals next year.

A five wins and two draws record has seen Portugal collect 17 points. They have scored 16 goals and conceded only four during a successsful qualification campaign to date.

The Fernando Santos team has had an unbeaten record in World Cup qualification matches since September 2016. They come with a six-game unbeaten run in all competitions into the Sunday’s key fixture in Lisbon.

Portugal have had success recently in the European Championship, having won the competition in 2016 and making it to the finals in 2004 and semi-finals in 2000 and 2012.

Serbia are making an appearance at Lisbon being capable of winning the game. They seem to have enjoyed a friendly action on Thursday against Qatar, recording a 4-0 victory with their last competitive fixture being against Azerbaijan on October 12 with a 3-1 success at home.

The Eagles appeared in the finals in 2018 and were eliminated in the group stages of the competition winning only one of their three matches, though they had not qualified for the 2014 World Cup. They did not qualify for Euro 2020 but they are a team to be so keen with at this level of the competition because of the quality in their squad especially in the forward.

Portugal vs Serbia Head to Head

In the recent encounters between the pair, Portugal has had a good record against Serbia. In their last seven recent matches, Portugal have managed to succeed three times and they have drawn four times. A Selecao have scored 13 goals and conceded 9, collecting 13 points in all competitions.

Portugal 2-1 Serbia 29/03/15

Serbia 1-2 Portugal 11/10/15

Portugal 1-1 Serbia 25/03/19

Serbia 2-4 Portugal 07/09/19

Serbia 2-2 Portugal 27/03/21

Portugal latest home form

Santos’ team have kept a good record recently at home, winning three out of their five latest matches in all competitions. However they have lost once 2-4 to Germany and drawn 2-2 with France in the EUC. in their last five home games, they have scored 14 goals and conceded 7.

Portugal 2-4 Germany 19/06/21

Portugal 2-2 France 23/06/21

Portugal 2-1 Republic of Ireland 01/09/21

Portugal 3-0 Qatar 09/10/21

Portugal 5-0 Luxembourg 12/10/21

Portugal latest away form

Despite giving in to a 0-0 draw with Republic of Ireland, Portugal have a good record on the road in their five recent away matches. However they have lost once to Belgium in the 1-0 defeat. They have won three games scoring nine goals and conceding only two in all competitions.

Hungary 0-3 Portugal 15/06/21

Belgium 1-0 Portugal 27/06/21

Qatar 1-3 Portugal

Azerbaijan 0-3 Portugal 07/09/21

Republic of Ireland 0-0 Portugal 11/11/21

Serbia latest home form

The Eagles have really strived to maintain a good record at the home ground. They have scored in all their recent five games at home, scoring 14 times and conceding only four in all competitions- keeping a clean sheet in their friendly game against Qatar on Thursday.

Serbia 2-2 Portugal 27/03/21

Serbia 1-1 Jamaica 07/06/21

Serbia 4-1 Luxembourg 04/09/21

Serbia 3-1 Azerbaijan 12/10/21

Serbia 4-0 Qatar 11/11/12

Serbia latest away form

Serbia have prooved not to be an easy team to beat on the road, since they have lost only a single game in their last five away matches in all competitions, a friendly they lost to Japan. They managed to score eight times and conceded three in their last five away matches.

Azerbaijan 1-2 Serbia 30/03/21

Japan 1-0 Serbia 11/06/21

Qatar 0-4 Serbia 01/09/21

Republic of Ireland 1-1 Serbia 07/09/21

Luxembourg 0-1 Serbia 09/10/21

Portugal news

Bernardo Silver is set to be back in the first XI squad for Portugal after missing in the game against Republic of Ireland due to muscle problem. Joao Cancelo, Diogo Jota and Ruben Dias were unused substitutes on Thursday thus are set to feature in the Sunday game against Serbia.

Serbia news

Serbia will be having changes from the squad that started the friendly against Qatar. Sergej Milinkovic-Savin, Nikola Milenkovic, Nemanja Gudelj, Dusan Vlahovic and Dusan Tadic are expected among the first XI coming into the Sunday clash.

Matija Naststic, Marko Petkovic, Darko Lazovic and Filip Djuricic will be out.

Prediction and Odds

It is going to be fascinating to see what will occur in Lisbon as this match has all the makings of a terrific football game. Portugal cannot easily give in to play only for a point as we can see this match finishing in a draw with Portugal advancing to the World Cup and Serbia accepting playoff spot.

Odds: 1 2.45 X 3.10 2 2.75