Portugal v Czech Republic Prediction: 11/2 Cancelo can help the Seleccao to a 3-1 win at 11/1

It’s Portugal v Czech Republic on Tuesday, June 18 (20:00, BBC One) in Leipzig as we get our first sight of one of the favourites in action.

Portugal-based James Pacheco has picks from the correct score and goalscorer markets at 11/1 and 11/2 to go with a 7/1 #PickYourPunt selection as, like Portugal, he looks to get his Euro 2024 campaign off to a winning start as he takes us through his Portugal vs Czech Republic Predictions...

Portugal

The general consensus back home is that this is probably the best squad they’ve ever taken to a major tournament. Sure, that Euro 96 team including the likes of Rui Costa, Fernando Couto, Luis Figo and Vitor Baia was filled with household names in their XI but there wasn’t a huge amount in terms of depth and there certainly is plenty here.

One online article this week offered two completely different Portugal starting line-ups and the second one would probably (and hypothetically) go pretty far in the tournament, too.

For just about the first time ever, here in Portugal, there’s genuine belief that they’re not just the perennial dark horses but genuine title contenders in their own right.

As ever, the Cristiano Ronaldo debate rages on of whether he’s still there on current merit and ability, or on reputation. To be fair to him, he had an excellent season in terms of goals in an increasingly competitive Saudi Arabian league and has been bang in form for is country, too. Even last week, he notched two goals, admittedly against a poor Ireland side.

Despite a flawless qualifying campaign, the big question mark is around the manager. Despite being an experienced boss, a popular man and getting outstanding results so far, there’s still a feeling that his track record isn’t the greatest and that tactically he might be found out. Let’s see.

It will be interesting whether Roberto Martinez plays his preferred 3-5-2 or a simpler 4-4-3. Maybe the latter to begin with.

Possible Starting line-up: Costa, Cancelo, Dias, Antonio Silva, Dalot, Palhinha, Vitinha, Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Leao, Ronaldo.

Czech Republic

They’re something of an enigmatic side after beating Moldova in a qualifier and come here with a new coach, Ivan Hasek, in charge. He favours a Gegenpressing style of football and has some decent weapons to work with in the form of all-round midfielder Tomas Soucek, speedy winger Matek Jourasek and goalscorer Patrik Schick.

Despite that trio, they’re not the greatest side in terms of star names but had some pretty good results under their previous coach, notably beating England, and drawing with Belgium and Spain, in addition to making the quarter-finals of the last Euros, against the odds.

They do have ’pedigree’ in this tournament, though as ever, it’s debatable as to whether performances from a couple of decades ago matter here and now in 2024.

So, they go under the ‘hard to beat’ type of team and they may prove to be just that, without threatening to go particularly far.

Possible XI: Stanek, Holes, Hranac, Krejci, Coufal, Soucek, Provod, Jurasek, Sulc, Kuchta, Schick.

Portugal vs Czech Republic Odds

*Please click on the link above to be taken to the main Portugal vs Czech Republic Euro 2024 market page on betfred.com (or app) for all the live betting prices on this match.

Portugal are 1/2 which is pretty much what you’d expect them to be. They’ve played each other five times, the first of which was when that wonder-lob from Karel Poborsky won them an edgy affair at Euro 96 that knocked out that famous ‘Golden Generation’ side when they were going so well.

But since then it’s been all Portugal, with four successive wins: 3-1, 1-0, 2-0 and 4-0, these last two both in 2022.

There should be a few takers of the 7/5 that Portugal win without conceding, which is actually ‘Portugal/No’ on the Match Result and both teams to score market. That said, they did concede in recent friendly wins over Croatia (2-1) and Finland (4-2) in addition to somewhat shockingly losing 2-0 to Slovenia before that win over Ireland.

Correct Score

What about the Czech Republic then when it comes to scoring? They’ve been good since qualifying with five straight wins, beating Macedonia 2-1, Malta 7-1, Armenia 2-1 and Norway 2-1. So they have goals in them, and we should show them respect here and assume they’ll get one against a Portugal defence that is arguably their weak link.

It’s not the Martinez way to go ahead and shut up shop the way it was under Fernando Santos and they’ll be able to bring on the dangerous fresh legs of the likes of João Félix, Diogo Jota and Gonçalo Ramos, who will be keen to impress and put pressure on the manager to include them in the XI next time round.

3-1 looks decent bet at 11/1.

#Pickyourpunt Popular Builders

There are some interesting #Pickyourpunt Popular Builders on offer and the one I like is Both Teams to score + Both Teams 4+ Corners + Both Teams 20+ Booking Points at 7/1.

I’ve gone through the case for both teams scoring already.

As regards the corners, Portugal got four or more in each of their last seven and in nine of the last 10, so I’m pretty confident they’ll get at least four here. As for the Czech Republic, they get four or more in five

of their last six and though that wasn’t against opposition as strong as Portugal, it’s still a stat in our favour.

The bookings maty be a little problematic but Italian Marco Guida averaged just, just under four this season from 27 games to go with two reds, so he’s not the most lenient.

Portugal got just 11 yellows in their 10 qualifying matches but that was in an extremely easy group, so the low number is understandable. The Czech Republic got 15 in 10.

So the bookings would be the biggest of my concerns across the three to come good from a statistical point of view but we saw from that Scotland game that red cards are more likely to be handed out in the days of VAR and if we got one of those, particularly if it was to Portugal player, we’d be halfway there. Let’s hope so.

Goalscorers

There are plenty of Portugal players you could make a case for to get a goal but not at the current prices. Ronaldo is understandably the shortest of those yet perversely probably one of the better bets at 5/6 for a man with his record. Jota, Ramos, and Felix at 6/4, 13/8 and 2/1 are all ones to swerve, particularly because they’re all unlikely to start. Bernardo Silva at 3/1 looks more decent but he occasionally plays deeper for his country.

Instead, I’ll go with João Cancelo who always likes a run forward and a shot and even more so if he’s deployed as a wing-back. He scored 6 in 52 appearances this season for club and country, including two in qualifying, so the 11/2 is on him is more up my street as a goalscorer bet.

Betfred Match Offers

Goal Fever

Throughout Euro 2024, Betfred are offering all customers a 25% cash bonus if your selected team in the Match Result market wins by 3+ Goals on selected matches. This is one of those games, so any bet on Portugal or the Czech Republic to win could see 25% winnings, should they do so by three or more.

Double Delight & Hat-Trick Heaven

Portugal vs Czech Republic is also one of our games for those who like a bit of a potential bonus in the first goalscorer markets. Should the player you bet on score first and subsequently go on to score a second in the match, we'll double the odds and if they get a hat-trick, we'll treble the odds!

Jamie Pacheco primarily covers Cricket and Portuguese football for us here at Betfred Insights and he'll be following the Portuguese national side throughout the Euro's for us. You can check out his and all the other Football Betting Tips from our writing staff on our main Football hub page.