Portugal vs Turkey

On Thursday night, Portugal hosts Turkey in the semi-final play-offs for Qatar 2022, with all to play in Porto.

PORTUGAL

Fernando Santos’ team looked to be favourites to automatically qualify for the World Cup from Group A, only for a 2-1 home defeat by Serbia in the last group game to their automatic qualification and send Portugal into this play-off tie. To say the defeat was a surprise would be an understatement, as the defeat ended a run of 16 World Cup qualifiers without a loss for the home side, a record that dated back to 2016.

The Selecao also have a formidable recent home record in World Cup qualifying, as the loss against Serbia ended a 20-match unbeaten run in the qualifiers for the Selecao. Portugal’s record of ten wins in their last 11 home World Cup qualifiers is still a good one.

TURKEY

The visitors will maybe count themselves slightly unlucky not to qualify for the World Cup automatically, after losing just one of their ten group games. However, their only defeat in Group G was a 6-1 hammering at eventual group winners the Netherlands.

The visitors ended their qualifying campaign with a trio of victories over Latvia, Gibraltar and Montenegro.

Their away form in qualifying has been relatively good, as they have won four of their last five matches on their travels while scoring at least twice in five of their last six away qualifiers.

Turkey’s recent international games have certainly offered value for money when it comes to goals, as there have been over 2.5 goals scored in seven of their last eight matches.

Portugal vs Turkey Team News

Portugal are without influential Wolves midfielder Ruben Neves through injury, while Nelson Semedo, Ruben Dias and Renato Sanches also all miss out because of various injuries. Pepe is available after suspension.

Turkey has no missing players due to injury, although attacking midfielder Cengiz Under is not in the squad, despite playing a big part in the group stages.