Portugal will be locking horns against the intimidating opponents, Spain in their first FIFA World Cup 2018 face-off. Quite interestingly, Ronaldo will be going against six of his Real Madrid teammates in today’s match. The Spaniards are still reeling under the sudden sacking of their coach Julen Lopetegui, but stalwarts like David De Gea, Sergio Ramos, David Silva, Diego Costa and several others make Spain a quite formidable team. Portugal might not be a charged team, but they are definitely the most favourite and strongest underdogs. With the likes of Bernardo Silva, Goncalo Guedes and Andre Silva, it will be very difficult to place a sure bet that they will lose. It will be all the more difficult to ignore the fact that the leading Ballon D’Or contender and probably one of the best players in the world stage, Cristiano Ronaldo is hungry to add a World Cup glory to his CV.
This match is highly important for both the teams and is expected to be the fuel for driving to the top spot in Group B. The European neighbours have faced each other 36 times, with Spain taking away the victory 18 times. The last time they faced each other in the Euro 2012 semi-finals, where Spain won 4-2 on penalties. The emotions attached with this match is also quite conspicuous, as seeing Ronaldo in the 2022 Qatar World Cup is difficult, and the Portuguese team would be trying to make most of the tournament a memorable one for their legend.
The match kicks off at 2230 IST, at the Fisht Olympic stadium.