Poor Ronaldo, Poor-tugal. One of the world’s most famous players was rounded panned and widely blamed for Portugal’s inability to beat DR Congo in the opening match of this World Cup, a side that haven’t played in this tournament for over 50 years and had a different name last time. Uzbekistan did well on their World Cup debut, and the 3-1 loss to Colombia in their first game wasn’t as bad as the scoreboard says. In saying that, Portugal are, or should be, another step up from Colombia and depending on where/if Ronaldo plays, it could be pretty one-sided. Group K’s Portugal vs Uzbekistan looks an easy one on paper, but we think the Asian team might give them a scare for a while.
Portugal vs Uzbekistan Preview
STATS SUMMARY
RATINGS
The Gurgler’s in-house Ratings system chooses the winner. Using H2H history, World Cup performance history, World Cup qualifying, the last four years of international games, performance against the confederation, and current effort at this World Cup.
| Portugal | 73.2% | Uzbekistan | 26.8% |
This one is lop sided, similar to Portugal’s first game v DR Congo.
BARELY INTERESTING STATS
Portugal’s record v Asian teams at the World Cup is W3 D1 L2 and remarkably have played North Korea twice. They have failed to win their last two though (D1 L1).
Uzbekistan have a terrible recent record v European teams, winless in 19 games going back to 2003 with nine draws and ten losses. They failed to score in 12 of those 19 games.
Portugal had almost double the touches of Uzbekistan in the opening round of games. Both teams scored one goal.
Uzbekistan have lost all four games they have played in North America.
MATCH PREDICTION
Portugal 1 Uzbekistan 1
