Portugal winger Nani. (Photo : Getty Images)
A high-profile encounter between two recent European Championship participants, Switzerland and Portugal, is scheduled on Sep. 6, Tuesday at the St. Jakob-Park in Basel to open Group B competitions in the ongoing 2018 FIFA World Cup UEFA qualifying tournament.
Start Time and Streaming Info
The game starts at 8:45 p.m. UTC+2. It can be viewed live online thru FuboTV.
Switzerland is coming off a sorry 1-1 (4-5 on penalties) loss to fellow European powerhouse Poland in a Round-of-16 game held at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard in Saint-Étienne during this summer's Euro 2016 tournament, as per The Guardian.
Wolfsburg midfielder Jakub Blaszczykowski netted the opening goal at the 39th minute of the contest for Poland before Stoke City winger Xherdan Shaqiri leveled the count at 1-all with eight minutes left before full time to send the game into a penalty shootout.
Newly-acquired Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka missed his spot kick to hand the match to the Polish side and prevent La Nati from advancing to the quarterfinals.
Head coach Vladimir Petković's team is currently ranked 18th in the world by FIFA, but they will be facing a much tougher opponent in their opening game this week against Portugal.
Portugal is the reigning Euro 2016 champions after beating superteam France, 1-0, in extra time of the final mostly without superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, who suffered a knee injury midway through the first half of the said championship match.
The Real Madrid icon will still be unavailable against the Swiss as he is still recuperating from the said setback, but head coach Fernando Santos' squad remains to be one of the toughest teams in the qualifiers with team captain Nani of Valencia, striker Eder of Lille, and winger Ricardo Quaresma of Besiktas.
A Seleção crushed Gibraltar, 5-0, at the Estádio do Bessa Século XXI in Porto last Thursday as their warmup game before opening the UEFA World Cup qualifiers this week, Daily Mail Online reported.
Prediction and Predicted Lineup
The predicted result is a 2-1 win by Portugal.
Switzerland starting lineup (4-2-3-1 formation): Sommer; Lichtsteiner, Schar, Djourou, Rodriguez; Behrami, Xhaka; Shaqiri, Dzemaili, Mehmedi; Seferovic
Portugal starting lineup (4-3-3 formation): Patricio; Cancelo, Pepe, Alves, Guerreiro; Moutinho, Carvalho, Mario; Quaresma, Eder, Nani
