GHANA VS PORTUGAL PREVIEW
At 4pm today, Ghana Senior Men's National Team, Blackstars will face the Seleção das Quinas of Portugal in a group H encounter of the 2022 FIFA World Cup at the 974 Stadium , Doha.
The two nations have met only once in this competition and that was at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in 2014 which saw Portugal defeating Ghana by two goals to one; which Cristiano Ronaldo netting the winning goal on a rebound in the 80th minute at the Estadio Nacional de Brasilia, Brasilia.
Despite the win, both countries failed to make it to the knockout stage of the competition as Germany and United States of America got in pole positions to.
The last edition of the World Cup in Russia in 2018 did not have Ghana as one of the participating countries as they missed out on qualification.
However, Portugal made appearance at the 2018 Mundial but were eliminated by Uruguay in the Round of 16 after suffering a two goals to one defeat.
Ghana’s best performance at the Mundial was on African soil when South Africa hosted in 2010, where they reached the Quarter finals and eventually eliminated by Uruguay on penalty shootouts.
Portugal’s best performance the FIFA World Cup was also way back in 1966 when they finished third. Despite being a star studded side, the Seleção das Quinas have not make it past the Round of 16 stage since 2010 in South Africa.
The Ghana national team coming into this tournament has the youngest average squad. Among them are a host of well performing players across Europe such as Mohammed Kudus of Ajax, Mohammed Salisu of Southampton, Inaki Williams of Athletic Bilbao, Tariq Lamptey of Brighton ad Hove Albion, Alexander Dziku of Strasbourg and many more.
Ghana had quite a difficult path of qualification en route to the Mundial as they played a goalless draw with Nigeria at home and a one all draw at Abuja to secure their qualification on away goals.
On the other side, Portugal booker their place in Qatar with impressive performances against Qatar (W 3-1) and North Macedonia( W 2-0) in the World Cup Qualification play offs.
