Armenia vs Portugal Prediction: Why 7/4 Pedro Neto can net on Saturday

Portugal open their World Cup qualifying campaign with a trip to Armenia with kick-off at 17:00 on Saturday, the game being shown on Prime Video.  

Jamie Pacheco talks you through the team news, form and his best bets ahead of this one, with a pick on the Asian Handicap market and a 7/4 goalscorer as he takes us through his Armenia vs Portugal Predictions...  

Portugal  

This will be Portugal's first match since the death of forward Diogo Jota earlier in the summer, so will inevitably be an extremely emotional affair.  

Their last match saw them win the Nations League final against Spain, becoming the first side to manage the feat of winning it twice.  

As ever, manager Roberto Martinez's biggest problem is who to leave out rather than who to include.   

Who won't be playing for sure however is Diogo Dalot, who injured himself during a training session for Portugal and is yet another casualty for Manchester United, who have an ever-growing number of injured players.  Rafael Leao of AC Milan, a regular starter for Portugal under Martinez also misses out with injury, while Francisco Conceicao hasn't been passed fit either, at the time of writing.  

Cristiano Ronaldo? Yeah, he should start as usual as he carries on searching for yet more international goals.  

Armenia  

Armenia have never qualified for either the Euros or the World Cup and are currently ranked 105 in the FIFA Rankings, having reached an all-time high of 30 back in 2014. 

In trying to qualify for Euro 2024, they finished fourth in a group of five, winning two, drawing two and losing four.  

And they're not in great form at the moment either, having lost three of their last four: twice to Georgia in the Nations League and then again to Kosovo, before a 2-2 draw with Montenegro, these last two being friendlies.   

If you were hoping to see former Man Utd and Arsenal star Henrikh Mkhitaryan in action, you're four years too late! He retired from international duty in 2021 but continues to be an important player at Inter Milan.  

Key Odds:

You can bet on our World Cup markets via our World Cup Odds page on the main betfred.com website.

Unsurprisingly, Portugal are hot favourites here at 1/8, implied probability of 89% with a home win priced at 14/1 (6.7%) and the draw 15/2, which is 11.8%.  

The last time Portugal played here back in 2015, they made somewhat hard work of it,  going a goal down and having ex-Chelsea man Tiago sent off, eventually winning 3-2 thanks to a Ronaldo hat-trick. CR7 and Bernardo Silva, an unused substitute on the day, are the only two players remaining who are still in Portugal's squad, ten years later.   

No prizes for guessing this isn't a market worth playing. Armenia's ranking, record in qualifying and recent form suggests an upset is unlikely to be on the cards and we're not backing Portugal at that price. On we go.  

You can bet on this match via our Armenia vs Portugal Odds page on the main betfred.com website with all the latest prices and full betting markets.

Asian Handicap  

Portugal are 11/10 to beat a -2 handicap and that looks a far more appealing prospect. They haven't admittedly been beating teams that comfortably over the last year or so but then again, they've been playing the likes of Spain, Croatia and Germany, all sides no-one beats comfortably. That said, they did beat Poland 5-1 last November and Denmark 5-2 en route to winning the Nations League, so the potential for lots of goals is there.  

Add to the equation that they'll want to put in a big performance to honour Jota and Ronaldo's insatiable appetite for goals and you can see why they're more than capable of winning this with plenty to spare.   

And yes, they were away on both occasions, but let's remember this is an Armenian team who lost 6-1 to Georgia and 5-2 to Kosovo in the last six months, hardly premium teams.  

A reminder that Portugal -2 means they need to win by three goals or more.  

Anytime Goalscorers  

There will probably be some takers of Ronaldo at 1/2 to score anytime and 23/10 to score two, or even the 10/1 he repeats his hat-trick from 10 years ago.  

But I'll serve him on this occasion and take my chances with Pedro Neto at 7/4 to score anytime. Martinez is a big fan of the Chelsea man, and he probably would have started anyway even if Leao had been fit; but he'll almost certainly start now the Milan forward has been ruled out.  

He's had plenty of playing time at Chelsea this season and was in good form at the Club World Championship, scoring in three consecutive matches as part of his 10 goals for the season. His record for Portugal isn't great, but he'll have few better chances to add another goal to it than here.  

Jamie Pacheco Football P/L 2025 (Excludes 3-3-3 column):  

• Points Staked: 6.5 
• Points Returned: 8.25  
• Current P/L: +1.75