While some teams have headaches at this point, for others the adventure has not yet begun. Thursday will have the third round of the series of matches Portugal Y Ghana to complete the start date of H groupwhich complete Uruguay Y South Koreawhich will meet three hours before.
The match will kick off at 13:00 Argentine time zone, at stadium 974 and will be broadcast by TyC Sports. The referee of the match will be the Moroccan of American nationality, Ismail Elfath.
In a press conference, Cristiano Ronaldo announced months ago that the one in Qatar would be his “last World Cup” and only a week ago he reiterated his idea, albeit doubling it: “If we are world champions, I will retire”.
These words, added to the darts thrown against Manchester United for lack of minutes, generated a heavy atmosphere in the previous week which culminated in the termination of the contract with the English club.
The former Real Madrid, top scorer of the national teams with a total of 117 goals in 191 games, will play his fifth World Cup and at the same time the sixth in a row for Portugal and the eighth in history. The best collective performance was in Germany 2006 when they finished fourth. Then, he never made it past the round of 16.
The Portuguese team reached the World Cup after leaving Turkey and North Macedonia away in the playoffs to finish second in their area, behind Serbia. Portugal’s farewell friendly was won 4-0 against Nigeria in Lisbon, albeit without Ronaldo, who missed out with gastroenteritis.
For its part, Ghana will add its fourth participation since the start of the World Cup in Germany 2006 and after an absence of eight years. The best work came in South Africa 2010, where they were eliminated by Uruguay on penalties, with the well-remembered execution of Loco Sebastián Abreu, who chipped the ball.
Ghana’s main figure is Thomas Partey, the current Arsenal man from England, for whom they paid €50m in mid-2020 when he wore the colors of Atlético de Madrid.
Parley scored the goal for World Cup qualification, which was not easy: he had to leave Nigeria away, with whom he drew 0-0 at home and 1-1 away, which gave him the ticket to the tie. goal break in this condition.
The only previous match between Portugal and Ghana was in the group stage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Portugal won 2-1, with a winning goal from Cristiano Ronaldo.
possible formations
Portugal: Diego Costa; Joao Cancelo, Pepe, Ruben Dias, Nuno Mendes; William Carvalho, Ruben Neves, Bruno Fernandes; Cristiano Ronaldo, Bernardo Silva, Rafael Leao. DT: Fernando Santos.
Ghana: Joseph Wollacott; Denis Odoi, Daniel Amartey, Alexander Djiku, Gideon Mensah; Thomas Partey, Iddrisu Bada, Mohammed Kudus, Jordan Pierre Ayew; Issahaku Fatawu and Felix Afena-Gyan. DT: Otto Addo.
Referee: Ismail Elfath (United States).
Now: 1:00 pm.
TV: TyC Sport.
Stage: 974.
Source: Clarin
Jason Root is the go-to source for sports coverage at News Rebeat. With a passion for athletics and an in-depth knowledge of the latest sports trends, Jason provides comprehensive and engaging analysis of the world of sports.