Portugal and Germany

We hope you are ready for another amazing derby at the Euro 2020 because Portugal and Germany are facing each other at the Allianz Arena in a fixture from Group F of the competition. Just like always, we are going to dive deep into this game as a part of our free soccer predictions for today. Let’s go!

Portugal are in a strange situation at the moment – they won their first game with 3-0, but at the same time they can’t be really satisfied with their performance on the pitch. The current European kings faced Hungary and Budapest and celebrated a 3-0 win. On paper it looks great, but here’s a little fact about it – Selecao needed to wait until the 84th minute to open the score. Before this they got penetrated in defense, but luckily for them Hungary’s goal got disallowed.

Raphael Guerreiro opened the score for Selecao while Cristiano Ronaldo finished the hosts with two late strikes – one of them from penalty kick. With these two goals Ronaldo became the best goalscorer in the history of the European Championships. He now has 11 goals on his account.

What Portugal’s head coach Fernando Santos must do now is understand what went wrong against Hungary. Not in terms of result, of course, but in terms of performance. If if it was not the Magyars against the Portuguese team things could have been very different.

The truth is Selecao lacked creativity in their game. They created just a few chances for scoring a goal, but Diogo Jota and Cristiano Ronaldo missed some excellent opportunities. Everyone expected a lot from Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva in terms of creating chances, but these two midfielders had a somewhat poor game at the Puskas Arena. Because of this, Portugal didn’t create as many chances as we expected against such an opponent.

It’s not absolutely necessary for Fernando Santos to make changes in his line-up, but he needs to talk to his players and bring them some confidence. We don’t think that Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva would get benched, but if Santos decides to replace Diogo Jota he could use players like Joao Felix, Rafa Silva or Andre Silva. The head coach has some very good options on the bench. This is one of Portugal’s biggest assets right now – the depth they have.

William Carvalho and Danilo Pereira started in midfield against Hungary, but players like Joao Moutinho and Renato Sanches are hungry for minutes. Both of them entered the pitch as substitutions against Hungary, but they are ready to get in the starting eleven if the manager picks them.

One of the good news for the Portuguese team was the fact that they didn’t concede a goal. The fans are hopeful that Pepe and Ruben Dias will form a great duo in the heart of the defense. Pepe has tons of experience because of his long career while Ruben Dias became one of the best defenders in the world since joining Manchester City.

Germany are right against the wall because the Mannschaft lost its first match at the Euro 2020. The three times European Champions faced France in their first game and tried their best, but at the end Les Bleus took away a 1-0 win at the Allianz Arena. The only goal in the game was scored in the first half when Mats Hummels put the ball in his own net. He tried to intercept a cross made by Lucas Hernandez, but it didn’t go entirely according to plan for him. Manuel Neuer didn’t have any chance to react, so this was the goal which decided the game in France’s favour.

It’s not shameful to lose against the current world champion, but now Germany must regroup as quick as possible. A second consecutive loss in this group could put them in a bad position, so no room for mistakes here. In terms of confidence the Germans won’t be in their best shape, but they have enough experience on highest level to get back on their feet.

Germany’s manager Joachim Low could make a lot of changes for this decisive second game in Group F. He left Timo Werner on the bench against France and started the game without a pure striker, but this experiment didn’t give positive result. Most likely Werner will be introduced in the line-up against Portugal because Germany need more firepower at the moment. The question is – who is going to sit on the bench to make place for him? Thomas Muller, Serge Gnabry and Kai Havertz started against Les Bleus, but only Muller played the whole 90 minutes.

Bayern Munich’s atomic winger Leroy Sane is another option Joachim Low could use to bring more pace and danger in the attacking phase. Putting Sane and Gnabry on both wings would cause some trouble for the Portuguese defense. These are some decisions Joachim Low must take now.

Leon Goretzka remain doubtful for this game as well. The Bayern Munich midfielder missed the first game, but there are some rumors he could be facing Portugal on Saturday. Ilkay Gundogan got criticized for his performance against France, so he could get replace by Goretzka if he’s ready to play.

Three years ago Germany got kicked out from the World Cup in the group stage, so maybe now it’s a bit of psychological thing for them. Surely the pressure is high in their camp, so this is the moment in which Joachim Low must talk to his players and find a way to calm them.

That’s our free soccer predictions for today for the Euro 2020 match between Portugal and Germany – two of the biggest teams in Europe right now. Selecao are leaders in the group right now, but they left some questions with their performance against Hungary. Meanwhile Germany are in a “must win” situation after losing their opening game against France. There’s no doubt it’s going to be a marvelous clash at the Allianz Arena. Germany has the home ground advantage, but let’s see if this is going to help them.