FIFA World Cup: Switzerland vs Portugal, Preview and prediction
Portugal's Coach Fernando Santos is likely to be pleased with his team's performance overall, despite their last-game defeat to South Korea.
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Will Portugal manage to beat a resilient Swiss team?They had achieved their objective of finishing top of the group by securing qualification with victories over Ghana (3-2) and Uruguay (2-0).
The team may have made few friends in Uruguay after their lacklustre display, especially since they had taken an early lead.
However, the coach would have been happy to have had the opportunity to rest many of his squad members in preparation for more significant challenges ahead.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">53rd career hat-trick 🔥🔥🔥<br><br>Cristiano Ronaldo was on fire again as Portugal reached the Nations League final with victory over Switzerland.<br><br>Read 👉 <a href="https://t.co/H5BbER43xJ">https://t.co/H5BbER43xJ</a> <a href="https://t.co/9WoLZO2QOU">pic.twitter.com/9WoLZO2QOU</a></p>— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) <a href="https://twitter.com/BBCSport/status/1136527139103227904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 6, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Switzerland started their World Cup campaign with mixed results, narrowly beating Cameroon 1-0 and then conceding late on to lose to Brazil by the same scoreline.
In their pivotal encounter against Serbia, they fell behind 2-1, but they managed to come back with two goals in the second half to ensure their passage to the Round of 16.
Portugal will want to join the competition's most fancied teams in the quarter-finals.
They have all the artistry and firepower to see off the Swiss, whose more systematic, organised approach will make them difficult to break down without ever causing the Portuguese defence too many problems.