Portugal vs Hungary Prediction: Why 10/3 Nuno Mendes to Assist is a Good Bet

Portugal host Hungary in their group’s fourth World Cup qualifier with a kick-off time of 19:45 on Tuesday night, live on Prime Video.

Jamie Pacheco talks you through the team news, form and his tips ahead of this one, where he likes a Portugal win without too many goals and is sticking with that Nuno Mendes to come up with an assist bet he missed out with on Saturday night. You can check out his full Portugal vs Hungary Predictions below...

Match Preview

Portugal  

The good news is that it was job done against the Republic of Ireland on Saturday night. Three games, three wins, two clean sheets, nine goals scored, are elite numbers in international football.    

They had substitute Ruben Neves to thank for the win, the former Wolves skipper leaping brilliantly to meet Trincao's cross in injury time to become the only player to get one past the impressive Caoimhin Kelleher on the night. Who didn't get one past Kelleher on the night was Ronaldo, not even from the spot. A somewhat dubious penalty was awarded to Portugal, CR7 put it down the middle but Kelleher's outstretched leg did enough keep the ball out. Ronaldo is making a habit out of missing a few of these of late, but he won't be giving up his penalty-taking responsibilities anytime soon. 

Portugal were good at the back again and their midfield didn't let Ireland see much of the ball, but they had 22 shots on goal and only scored in injury time, so that's an area to address.  

Ronaldo will probably start here but he's unlikely to get another 90 minutes again, even if his team are struggling.  

Hungary 

A 2-0 win over Armenia at the weekend certainly keeps them interested and currently in second place, they'll feel they're favourites to secure a Play-off spot behind Portugal, especially when you consider they still have to play hosts to Ireland.  

They were good value for that weekend win, enjoying 67% possession, 10 corners to Armenia's one and having plenty of shots.  

Daniel Lukcas got the opener and substitute Zsombior Gruber got the second. But as ever, it was Liverpool man Dominic Szoboszlai pulling the strings in midfield.

For all of our World Cup Odds and Betting Markets - please head on over to that section on betfred.com  

Match Odds:

Portugal are 2/9 (implied probability of 81.8%), while the draw is 6/1 (14.3%) and Hungary are 12/1, which is 7.7%.  

You can see why the hosts aren't any bigger and Portugal have a good head-to-head record over Hungary; they've played them 11 times and beaten them on nine occasions, winning the last four by 3-0, 1-0, 3-0 and 3-2.  

A good alternative to that might be a Portugal win with less than 3.5 goals in the match. Portugal are generally pretty good at the back and may well keep yet another clean sheet here.  If they do, then 1-0, 2-0 or 3-0 would all be winning scores when playing the 'Portugal to win with less than 3.5 goals in the match' market, which is 13/10.  

2-1 to Portugal, not out of the equation, would be fine, too.  It's a bet that covers a lot of plausible outcomes and makes far more appeal than the straight Portugal win, so we're going with it.  

*You can check out all of our Portugal vs Hungary Odds on our betting market over on betfred.com

Player Assists a Goal

Placing a good value bet based on sound rationality that doesn't go on to win doesn't make it a bad bet, far from it.  

So, we go in again on Nuno Mendes to provide an assist at 10/3, the same bet and same price as last time.  

We alluded to the fact he got six assists in the last edition of the Nations League as proof that he loves to get forward for his country and it's not so much a bonus in his case, that he does; it's what makes him the player he is in the first place.  

He didn't quite bomb forward as much as usual on Saturday, but he's got a good chance to again here, and it's a price that's too good to ignore.  

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

• Points Staked: 9.0 
• Points Returned: 9.35
• Current P/L: +0.35

Jamie Pacheco predominantly covers Cricket and European Football for us at Betfred Insights. You can check out his Football Betting Tips, along with those from the rest of the team, at our Football hub page...