Portugal – Spain Preview – can Portugal complete the double over Spain?
Anyone looking for Portugal vs Spain betting tips this week has landed on one of the best subplots left in the whole bracket. These two haven’t met in a competitive fixture since last summer’s Nations League final, when Portugal finally got the better of Spain on penalties after more than two decades of trying. Now they meet again, in a straight knockout, with a quarter-final spot waiting for the winner.
That Nations League final still matters here. Portugal had gone without a win over Spain since Euro 2004, and Cristiano Ronaldo scored in normal time before the shootout finally went their way. Beating Spain once is a good story. Doing it twice, in the same calendar year, on the World Cup stage, is the sort of thing that follows a team around for a long time.
Spain reached this point the way European champions are supposed to. Luis de la Fuente’s side had stumbled through the group stage, but they put that behind them in the round of 32, brushing past Austria with Mikel Oyarzabal scoring twice and Pedro Porro adding a third. Portugal got here the hard way. Ronaldo converted a penalty against Croatia, Ivan Perisic pulled Croatia level, and it took a stoppage-time header from Goncalo Ramos, set up by Rafael Leao, to send Roberto Martinez’s side through.
That contrast is where this preview gets interesting. Spain look like the more complete side right now, with more ways to hurt you and less reliance on one moment of magic. Portugal are still finding ways to win without always playing well, which is its own kind of dangerous. Spain go into it as slight favourites, but only marginally so, and this Portugal squad has already shown it doesn’t read the script the way it’s supposed to go. Kick-off is at 00:00 GMT on 7 July, at the Dallas-Arlington stadium in Texas.
Portugal – Spain Betting Tips
Picking a straight winner here feels like guessing which way a coin lands. The better route is backing what these two sides have just shown you.
Betting Tip: Spain draw no bet
Spain shared the goals around against Austria, with two different players getting on the scoresheet, and did it without ever looking troubled. Portugal needed a stoppage-time header just to get past Croatia, and a win that late says something about the gap in control between these two right now. Spain draw no bet takes the draw out of the equation and backs the side that looked more the finished article last time out, without needing a two-goal cushion to make it pay.
Betting Tip: Both teams to score
Ronaldo scored from the penalty spot in the last round and Oyarzabal scored twice for Spain, so neither forward line is short of confidence in front of goal. Portugal have Ramos and Leao combining for a stoppage-time winner on top of that, while Spain have shown they can put three past a team once they get going. Both teams to score backs both attacks to keep doing what they’ve just done, against defences that haven’t had a fully settled night yet either.
Betting Tip: Over 2.5 goals
Portugal’s last game produced three goals between both sides, Spain’s produced three more, and the last time these two shared a pitch it finished 2-2 after normal time before penalties settled it. That’s a pattern of matches that keep finding the net rather than matches that lock up. Over 2.5 goals leans on that continuing rather than betting this one turns into the exception. Get these tips on before kickoff and check the current World Cup betting odds on the sportsbook, since a late Ronaldo team-news update could easily shift the market.
Spain arrive the sharper side on paper, Portugal arrive with the psychological upper hand from last summer, and that tension alone should make this one of the ties of the round.
Team news and the questions still open
Spain’s options are a shade thinner than they were a week ago. Nico Williams is out with a hamstring problem and Yeremi Pino is missing with a collarbone injury, while Victor Munoz is a doubt of his own. None of that changes the shape of a squad this deep, but it does trim the width De La Fuente can call on if the game gets stretched.
Portugal’s picture is murkier, and mostly tactical rather than medical. Ronaldo came off with around ten minutes left against Croatia, and Martinez has a genuine call to make on whether he starts fresh here or whether Ramos, the man who won the last game, gets the nod instead. It’s the sort of selection puzzle that can decide a tight tie, and it’s worth checking the team news before you lock anything in. Knockout football keeps throwing up these swings this tournament: Australia gave Egypt a far tougher night than the form book suggested, and Argentina found their own last-16 test against Cape Verde harder than expected too.
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