Sunday, June 18, 2017

Portugal vs Mexico
Competition: Confederations Cup
Date: 18 June 2017
Kick-off Time: 16:00 GMT
Venue: Kazan Arena 
Portugal - Mexico probable lineups:
Portugal: Patricio – Semedo, Fonte, Pepe, Guerreiro – Moutinho, Carvalho – Quaresma, A.Gomes, Ronaldo – A.Silva
Mexico: Ochoa – Salcedo, D.Reyes, Moreno, Layun – Herrera, J.dos Santos – Fabian, G.dos Santos, Vela – Chicharito(Jimenez) 
Portugal team is coming to the Confederations Cup as European champions, and that very title itself is a great obligation to prove themselves in the prelude for the World Cup in Russia, and maybe even win a new trophy, which would not have been a surprise when looking at the composition with which they came to this competition. Interestingly, this is the 1st participation for Portugal in the Confederations Cup and perhaps this is an additional motive, but somehow it seems that they do not need special motive, because when the best footballer of the world Crisitano Ronaldo, after a very difficult season and winning two trophies with Real Madrid team, decided to help his national team instead of going to vacation, then the others should have to be maximally motivated to play at the highest level.
After winning the title of the UEFA European champions, Portugal team suffered an unpleasant defeat at the start of qualifiers from Switzerland and are now not sure they will win the first place and go directly to the World Cup, but they still have a chance for the 2nd  place, and the players are known to be masters when it comes to playoffs. In the meantime they lost a friendly match against Sweden, while they won the last two games without any goals received. They played a friendly match against Cyprus team in a combined team and they won with 4-0, while they played in a stronger composition against Latvia, and won with 3-0, with 2 goals by Cristiano Ronaldo. Coach, Santos, has not brought players: Joao Maria, Sanchez, and Rafa Silva from his standard players to this competition. The rest are there and are really among the first favourites.
Mexico team is doing considerably better than Portugal in the qualifiers and it can almost be said that they have secured a placement in the World Cup next year, though their job is still a little easier since the group of three teams goes directly to World Cup and Mexico surely holds first place, and no one has defeated them yet. It is clear that the job will be routinely finished and next summer they will be seen again in the World Cup of Russia, while now it remains to see what they can do in this kind of prelude for World Cup. Judging by the composition, they can do a lot, because they decided to give advantage to this competition instead of Gold Cup, which will start next month and it is certain that their big stars will not play in that competition as well.
They are practically the best here, although some are missing like: Hernandez, Gutierrez or Pineda. They took advantage of the fact that this contest merely adds to the qualifiers, because they had to be serious and strong in both games, so they defeated Honduras with 3-0, while USA was tougher opponent and they ended with 1-1. That point was sufficient enough but they still need only one win in the remaining four rounds. Mexico is also a record player with 5 appearances at Confederations Cup, and they also have one title and now want to repeat that all led by some great players such as: Chicharito, Herrera, Vela, Dos Santos and others.

 

0 التعليقات:

Post a Comment