Portugal vs Lithuania Predictions

When Portugal host Lithuania on Thursday evening, they’ll be looking to continue their assault on the qualification places. The visitors will be hoping to do better than when losing by five goals to one in the reverse fixture.

Last time out, Portugal were hoping to close the gap between themselves and group leaders Ukraine, though the opposite happened. After losing by two goals to one on foreign soil, the Portuguese find themselves eight points behind the Ukrainians, who’ve now secured their place as Group B winners. The European champions are in prime position to claim the second qualification spot, though, with Serbia sat just a point behind them.

Playing at home hasn’t exactly been a joyful experience for Fernando Santos’ men, who failed to win any of their first two group games in Portugal, drawing 0-0 with Ukraine and then 1-1 with Serbia. They did beat minnows Luxembourg when last in action on home soil, but a 3-0 win wasn’t overly impressive. Fortunately, they’ve got an easy task on Thursday.

It’s been a tough old group for the Lithuanians, who come into match-day eight having recorded zero wins, six losses and a draw. They’ve conceded far more goals than they’ve scored and have generally failed to compete. When they faced Portugal on home soil, they did offer the slightest amount of promise going forward and were rewarded with a goal, but they struggled defensively, conceding five times.

From a betting point of view, this is a difficult game. The Portuguese are huge odds-on favourites and rightly so, though backing them to simply come out on top, which is what they almost certainly will do, offers no value. One bet that does make minor appeal is ‘Portugal to Win & Under 3.5 Goals’. For all Portugal will be too good for the visitors, they’ve not exactly flown at home. Even against minnows Luxembourg last time out, they didn’t exactly go overboard. If we also consider that Lithuania, despite offering next to no offensive threat, kept things respectable when recently visiting Ukraine and lost by only two goals to nil, it’s easy to feel supporting a relatively low-key home win is the best way to go.