Portugal team captain Cristiano Ronaldo. (Photo : Getty Images)
Group F leaders Hungary (1-0-1, 4 points) will clash with struggling powerhouse Portugal (0-0-2, 2 points) at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais in Lyon on June 22, Wednesday in the final matchday of the 2016 UEFA European Championship group stage competitions.
This match will be a crucial one for both teams as their chance of qualifying in the next round will be higher if they can pull off a win against one another.
Hungary, presently ranked 20th in the world by FIFA, has surprised football analysts a bit as they were not among the favorites to top Group F with Portugal and Austria as the squads that were projected to share the top two spots of the group's table.
However, they came out with fine performances starting with their 2-0 blanking of world no. 10 Austria during their tournament opener on June 14 to earn the first and only victory so far in the group.
After that, they encountered another surprise team, Iceland, in the second round last Saturday and had settled to a 1-1 draw at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille, Daily Mail Online reported.
Head coach Bernd Storck's boys were actually fortunate to pull off a stalemate as the equalizing goal came from their opponents themselves, an own goal by Iceland defender Birkir Már Saevarsson at the 88th minute, after Swansea City midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson scored the first goal of the contest six minutes before the halftime break.
Meanwhile, Portugal is still winless after two rounds of matches with team captain Cristiano Ronaldo not being able to live up to expectations so far. A Selecção has only scored once in their first two games, courtesy of Fenerbahçe striker and vice-captain Nani, but their defense remains solid conceding only one goal as well.
Manager Fernando Santos's squad is coming off a 0-0 stalemate with Austria also last Saturday at the Parc des Princes in Paris for their second round encounter, via ESPN.
Ronaldo had a chance to score the winning goal at the 79th when he stepped up to take a penalty kick, but his shot hit the post and bounced away to preserve the draw.
At the moment Iceland leads Portugal in goals scored, which puts them in the second spot of the group table with the latter at the third spot. If both third round Group F matches ends up in a draw, Ronaldo and his boys must have a higher goals scored tally than Iceland to overtake them for second place or else both teams' fair play records will be the basis of the standings.
The predicted result is a 2-1 decision for Portugal.
Hungary starting lineup (4-3-3 formation): Kiraly; Lang, Juhasz, Guzmics, Kadar; Kleinheisler, Gera, Nagy; Dzsudzsak, Priskin, Stieber
Portugal starting lineup (4-4-2 formation): Patricio; Vieirinha, Pepe, R. Carvalho, Guerreiro; Quaresma, W. Carvalho, Moutinho, Gomes; Ronaldo, Nani
