With Portugal’s first UEFA Nations League contest coming up today, Fernando Santos’ men will be without their star man Cristiano Ronaldo.
Portugal – Italy Bet365 Odds
The Portugal star will remain in Turin to train for Juventus. Ronaldo decided to stay and devote his time and concentration to his new club. With Juventus’ first Champions League game against Valencia coming up one week after the international break, the Portuguese player wants to be 100% fit and ready to play in the competition Juve fans have been dreaming of winning for the last 22 years.
“After talking to the player, and after he moved to Juventus with all the processes of adaptation that entails, we understand it was best for him to not be present for these games.” – Portugal manager Fernando Santos
Ronaldo’s Portugal absence is hardly a surprise, as he has only played in eight of Portugal’s last 20 friendlies. The only difference is that starting this year, some of those friendlies have become competitive fixtures. The Navigators already faced World Cup runner-ups Croatia without Ronaldo four days ago in a match which finished as a 1-1 draw. Now they face Italy, who kicked off their Nations League campaign with an identical result against Poland.
Portugal – Italy Bet365 Odds
Portugal 2.45 (16/11)
Draw 3.1 (21/10)
Italy 3.4 (12/5)
Portugal – Italy H2H
Italy had a nine-game winning streak versus Portugal before the last time they met. In 2015, Eder scored an away goal in a friendly to finally bring an end to the bad run against today’s opponent. It was Portugal’s second overall win against Italy, with the first one coming in their first-ever matchup in 1957. What that means is these two nationals teams have never had a head-to-head game finish in a draw.
Portugal – Italy Prediction
Portugal is a whole different team without Ronaldo, albeit still a great one. They were the better opponent against Croatia and with several youngsters eager to prove themselves, they could very well beat Mancini’s Italy as well.
