Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal prepares to take a free kick during a match between Portugal and Spain. Portugal faces Azerbaijan in UEFA 2014 World Cup Qualifying on September 11, 2012. (Photo by Martin Rose/Getty Images)
Portugal should win comfortably against Azerbaijan. That doesn't mean they will. Follow @SBNationSoccer
Portugal are involved in a race with Russia for the top spot in qualifying Group F, so they're going to need to avoid the poor results of qualifying groups' passed and pick up what should be a simple three points on Tuesday. They struggled mightily with Luxembourg on Friday, and Paulo Bento will be expecting a much better performance from his side on Tuesday against Azerbaijan.
There's absolutely no reason at all why Portugal shouldn't win comfortably in Braga on Tuesday evening, but there was also no reason why they should have trailed Luxembourg for 15 minutes in their last qualifying match. They'll be facing a very tightly packed defense with tons of men behind the ball once again on Tuesday, something they seem to struggle to deal with.
Game Date/Time: Tuesday, 3:15 p.m. ET, 8:15 p.m. local
Venue: Municipal Stadium, Braga, Portugal
TV: RTP International (U.S. and Canada - Portuguese), Sportsnet World+ (Canada), ESPN Deportes (U.S. - Spanish)
Online: ESPN3 (U.S.)
We'll have live coverage of every qualifier in our UEFA 2014 World Cup Qualifying StoryStream. For more on the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.
There are 0 Comments. Add Yours.
Shortcuts to mastering the comment thread. Use wisely.
C - Next Comment
X - Mark as Read
R - Reply
Z - Mark Read & Next
Shift + C - Previous
Shift + A - Mark All Read
Comment Settings
Live comment alert: Hide it!
Comments for this post are closed.