Portugal vs Switzerland preview: How to stream, start time, predictions and latest news ahead of Wor

Morocco Portugal live as Cristiano Ronaldo enters match in World Cup quarterfinals.

Portugal meet Switzerland in the final last-16 tie at the 2022 World Cup on Tuesday, December 6.

The match will be played at the Lusail Stadium in Lusail.

Cesar Ramos has been appointed as the referee. It is the Mexican’s third game of the tournament after he was in charge of two fixtures during the group stage: Denmark vs Tunisia and Belgium vs Morocco.

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What time is Portugal vs Switzerland?

The match kicks off at 10pm local time which means it will start at 7pm in the UK and the coverage will be shown on ITV.

In the US, FOX and Telemundo will be showing the match and kick off is at 2pm EST and 11am PT.

Portugal works on a similar time zone to the UK so kick off there will also be at 7pm while it will be 8pm in Switzerland.

Team news

Having qualified for the knockouts with a game to spare in Group H, Portugal had the luxury of being able to rest some of their best players and, despite losing against South Korea, the six changes provided a well-earned rest for those that dropped out.

Those players are all likely to return to the team as Fernando Santos reverts to a full-strength line up. He is without Nuno Mendes, who won’t play a further part in Qatar, while Danilo Pereira is sidelined for the time being.

Otavio has also been injured recently but he should be fit enough for the bench.

On the back of their vital win against Serbia, it is hard to imagine the Switzerland starting XI changing much, if at all. Although, if Yann Sommer is fully fit, he will almost certainly return for Gregor Kobel.

The veteran Swiss goalkeeper missed the last game with illness so it is unclear whether he will be ready or not for Tuesday’s game.

Predicted line-ups

Portugal (4-2-3-1): Costa, Cancelo, Pepe, Dias, Guerreiro; Neves, Carvalho; Silva, Fernandes, Felix; Ronaldo.

Switzerland (4-2-3-1): Sommer, Widmer, Akanji, Elvedi, Rodriguez; Xhaka, Freuler; Shaqiri, Sow, Vargas; Embolo.

The story so far

It was a strong, if unspectacular, start to the World Cup for Portugal that helped them into the knockout stage ahead of schedule. They survived a scare against Ghana and won 3-2 before beating Uruguay 2-0 thanks a brace from Bruno Fernandes.

Santos won’t have been too worried about the defeat to South Korea in the final group game but the performance of Cristiano Ronaldo — who was withdrawn just after the hour mark — won’t have filled the Portugal boss with much confidence.

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Switzerland did exactly what was expected of them in Group G. They beat Cameroon, lost to Brazil and beat Serbia.

The final game always looked likely to be a shootout between the two European sides and that is how it transpired. Xherdan Shaqiri joined an exclusive club of players to have scored at three separate World Cups as Breel Embolo and Remo Freuler also got on the scoresheet in the 3-2 victory.

Players carrying yellow cards

Portugal: Danilo Pereira, Bruno Fernandes, Ruben Neves, Joao Felix, Ruben Dias.

Switzerland: Nico Elvedi, Manuel Akanji, Fabian Rieder, Silvan Widmer, Ruben Vargas, Granit Xhaka, Fabian Schar.

What’s at stake?

A place in the quarter-final.

As a nation with such an embarrassment of attacking riches in the last couple of decades, it remains a great surprise that Portugal have never won a World Cup.

In fact, they have only got past the last-16 twice. In 1966, Eusebio sparkled in England and led them to third and they came fourth in Germany in 2006. In the last three World Cups before this one, they were knocked out at this stage twice, either side of a group-stage exit in 2018.

Switzerland, on the other hand, have reached the quarter-finals three times but those campaigns were in 1934, 1938 and 1954. In three of the last four World Cups, they were knocked out at this stage.

Prediction

Portugal to beat Switzerland.

Portugal to win: 42 per cent, Switzerland to win: 29 per cent. Draw: 29 per cent.

To progress to the quarter-final: Portugal: 57 per cent, Switzerland: 43 per cent.

All of our predictions for the 2022 World Cup are powered by Nielsen’s Gracenote, who have used a proprietary football ranking system to estimate the chances of different results for every possible match through extensive simulations, to assess the chances for each team to reach different stages of the tournament.

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Who is likely to await in the next round?

The winner of this tie will face the winner of the last-16 tie between Morocco and Spain.

Spain are widely expected to come out on top in that one but given the fact they are the runners-up in that tie while Morocco were group winners. Either way, it certainly won’t be easy.

An Iberian Derby in the quarter-final is a tasty prospect but the other two teams in the equation will do a very good job of trying to deny that eventuality.

Wider reading

Portugal hopes rest largely on the shoulders of Ronaldo and Fernandes; one is in excellent form, the other not so much. Meanwhile, FIFA have opened disciplinary proceedings after the contest between Switzerland and Serbia.

Follow the latest Qatar World Cup news, analysis, tables, fixtures and more here.

(Top photo: Getty Images)

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