Portugal vs Czech Republic Prediction: Ronaldo eye another Euro title before retirement

In the second opening game of Group F, Cristiano Ronaldo will lead Portugal's line against the Czech Republic in the ongoing 2024 Euro tournament. Heading into this game, the Czech Republic have a good run of victories and will look to start this tournament on a good note. Can Portugal, under Roberto Martínez, become European champions?

Portugal currently have one of the best teams in Europe at the moment, and their players have had a lot of positive impacts on their club side, which has also extended to the national side. In this team, we have quality on both ends of the field, ranging from experienced and young talents. 

In the qualification stage, Portugal topped Group J, picking maximum points from each encounter. In fact, this team conceded just 2 points while scoring 36 of their own. In fact, some of their significant victories in the qualifier were 9-0 and 0-6 wins over Luxembourg, a 0-5 win over Bosnia & Herzegovina, and a 4-0 win over Liechtenstein. 

In the meantime, a look at this Cristiano Ronaldo national team side's recent matches shows they have lost two already. In those matches, Portugal lost 2-0 to Slovenia and also a 1-2 defeat at the hands of Croatia, both friendly encounters. However, this team secured wins over Iceland, Sweden, Finland and Ireland in other friendly encounters. Now, heading into this game, Roberto Martínez will have a lot of players to pick from the rich squad, and we can expect them to be at their best here. 

The Czech Republic could be one of the revelations in this Euro 2024, and we might not even be ready for what this side could unleash in terms of solid performance. Coming into this Euro tournament, this team unarguably has one of the proving performances we could see from any side and we can surely expect more from them. 

In their qualification stage, the Czech Republic surprisingly finished second spot in Group E, pulling off 15 points, the same as first-placed Albania. In their eight matches, this team scored a total of 12 goals while conceding just 6. In the qualifying matches, the Czech Republic had big wins over Poland, Faroe Island, and Montenegro, scoring 10 goals and conceding two in those matches. 

Looking at the Czech Republic's recent matches since the beginning of 2024, we have witnessed this side record a perfect win record of four matches. In those games, this team defeated Norway, Armenia, Malta, and North Macedonia. The Czech Republic scored 13 goals in those matches while conceding four. Ahead of this opener, the Czech Republic have lost just one of their last 14 competitive matches, winning 9 and drawing the remaining four. 

Portugal Possible Starting Lineup:

Costa; Cancelo, Pepe, Dias, Mendes; Palhinha, Vitinha, Fernandes; Leao, Ronaldo, Bernardo

Czech Republic Possible Starting Lineup:

Stanek; Holes, Hranac, Krejci; Coufal, Soucek, Provod, Barak, Jurasek; Kuchta, Schick

This game will be a survival of the fittest, looking at the performances we have witnessed from both nations ahead of this Euro. However, while the Czech Republic have a good winning mentality in a form squad, Portugal are just that consistent and hungry side that has dominated Europe for a long time. Ahead of this game, Czech Republic have found the back of the net in seven successive matches but also conceded a goal in five of those matches. On the other hand, Portugal have the proper team for this job, and I expect a lot of attacking play from this squad, looking at the creativity that will come from the midfield and strong wing plays. Take Seleção das Quinas to win this game, with many goals expected from this exciting-looking encounter.