When Portugal takes on Northern Ireland on Tuesday, Cristiano Ronaldo will finally reach 100 caps with his national squad. But he will need to do much more in order to make the day a memorable one.
With their loss to Russia on Friday, Portugal is now in second place and has to play a huge game to keep pace with their rivals. No slip ups are permitted anymore as another loss or draw easily gives Russia the group win and subjects Portugal to a playoff round to make Brazil 2014. Ronaldo was invisible Friday against Russia as Fabio Capello's men shut him down incessantly and threw three markers on him all the time. With no space and his squad producing few quality chances, Ronaldo and Portugal sunk.
Now they take on a lowly team that they must defeat at home. The Northern Irish have one point courtesy of a drawn with Luxembourg. However, this is no sure bet for Portugal as they barely beat that same Luxembourg squad 2-1 and had a hard time scoring against Azerbaijan until the latter part of the match. Bad starts are unacceptable for Portugal and a fast start and few goals in the first half could calm fans down. More importantly, Ronaldo must be effective and produce some scores for Portugal. Through three qualifying matches the superstar has just one goal. He had a great Euro 2012 tournament in which questions over his form for the national squad were put to rest. But his recent play against inferior competition has started to give the critics new opportunities to attack the controversial star.
Prior to his competition with Russia, Ronaldo had 8 goals in his last three games and 10 in his last five overall. That is the form expected of him against Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland's Aaron Hughes has already stated that he doesn't expect much of the possession after watching the Portuguese dominate possession against Russia.
Start Time: 3:45 p.m. EDT
Prediction: Timothy Rapp of Bleacher Report has Portugal romping through Northern Ireland by the score of 3-0. UK Eurosport Yahoo has the odds stacked in Portugal's favor. Sport Mole has a 3-0 win for Portugal.
Latinospost predicts a 6-0 win for Portugal. Ronaldo is bound for a huge game and he should have brace or hat trick in this one.
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