Portugal showed some courage after their dramatic loss at home to Serbia in the group qualification match. They were also confident in the playoffs and won over Turkey, North Macedonia and North Macedonia. This earned them their Qatar ticket in a slightly more difficult manner than they expected.
They maintained their elite ranking in the Nations League campaign. However, their second spot was ended. The Portuguese were denied a ticket to the knockout phase. They performed well in most campaign fixtures but failed to produce a decisive match at home against the Spaniards, where they lost a close 0 to 1.
The Portuguese are without forward Rui (12/0 Napoli) as well as forwards Silva (25/0 Benfica), Neto (3/1 Wolves) and Jota (29.5/10 Liverpool) in comparison to their previous call-up.
Nigeria will be missing the Qatar event due to their disappointment. They lost their last match against Ghana by a narrow margin.
The qualifications for the African Nations Championship were not a promising time. They face the same foe in that final stage and failed to go one step further. However, their back-to-back defeats against Algeria and Costa Rica in the next friendlies are clear indicators that Nigeria still has a lot to learn.
Comparatively to the previous call-up, the visitors are missing defenders Aina (29/0 Torino), Sanusi (12/0 Porto), Omeruo (61/0 Leganes), and forwards Osimhen (22/15, Napoli), Faleye (5/1 Shooting Stars), Iheanacho (44.4/12, Leicester), and Sadiq (5/1 Sociedad).
It is simply a higher level of quality
The best way to kick off the World Cup campaign is with a win. With that in mind, the Portuguese will certainly take the World Cup campaign more seriously in the next friendly.
They simply have a higher level of quality, and a better rooster in all aspects. Any other outcome than their convincing victory would be truly surprising, even though the Nigerians are at their highest in this game.
Prediction : Home Win
