Lithuania vs Portugal Predictions

The not-so-proud owners of just a single point, Lithuania, who lost again on Saturday, have struggled during the current qualification campaign. Tuesday’s hosts will be hoping for better but beating recent Nations League champions (and current EURO champions) Portugal will be tough.

As you would expect, Lithuania have come up short in qualifying. They’ve lost three of their four matches, while they could only draw at home against fellow minnows Luxembourg. Defensively, they’ve not cut it, conceding ten in four, while they’ve found it tough to get going offensively, though their efforts haven’t been entirely devoid of forward promise, as they’ve notched three goals during the current campaign.

Unfortunately, the Lithuanians head into Tuesday’s fixture off the back of two damaging defeats. They were first beaten 4-1 by Serbia away from home, while they lost by three goals to nil when welcoming Ukraine to LFF stadionas on Saturday evening. Such results do not bode well ahead of facing Group B’s biggest and best.

Due to their successful Nations League campaign, Portugal have only played three times in EURO 2020 qualifying, but they’ve already established themselves, alongside Ukraine, as favourites to finish in the top two.

Against Ukraine on match-day one, Portugal huffed and puffed their way to a reasonably disappointing 0-0 draw, while they could only draw against Serbia on match-day two. However, as they produced a pleasing 3.39 expected goals for on that occasion, they created a positive impression and were unfortunate not to win. The wrongs of that draw were put right a few days ago as the Portuguese beat Serbia away from home by four goals to two.

In the betting, ‘Portugal to Win & Both Teams to Score’ catches the eye. The visitors ought to be far too good for Tuesday’s hosts, though the recent Nations League champions haven’t looked amazingly secure at the back of late. They shipped twice on route to victory on Saturday, while despite creating an awful lot on match-day two, they gave plenty away, conceding 1.89 expected goals and failing to keep a clean sheet. Add in the fact that Lithuania recently notched in defeat to Serbia and the fact that the hosts are averaging 1.08 expected goals for at home and it looks as though the chances of the Lithuanians notching on their way to losing are greater than the current odds would have us believe.