The World Preliminary Round European Zone is about to open the semi-finals of the playoffs, the competition between the teams is quite cruel, Portugal and Italy are the biggest focus of the death of the playoffs, the two top European giants are destined to have a team that does not qualify for the World Cup, and the two teams may even miss the play-off finals, for two reasons, first, Portugal and Italy are not in good shape; second, the opponents encountered are tough and tenacious teams, and the probability of upset is not small.
Portugal was forced to the play-offs to blame themselves, they had the opportunity to kill the suspense in advance to advance to the World Cup in the European group stage of the World Preliminary Round, but the last two group matches missed the promotion point, and were kicked by Ireland at 0-0 and defeated by Serbia 1-2, thus allowing Serbia to directly complete the overtaking to advance to the World Cup, and Portugal was in a desperate situation.
Italy is also like this, in the last two rounds of the group stage without a win, 1-1 Switzerland, 0-0 Northern Ireland, thus being directly overtaken by Switzerland to qualify for the World Cup, Italy as the European champion into the World Preliminary Tournament desperate situation. In the early morning of March 25, Beijing time, Portugal will encounter a bitter host in the semi-finals of the play-offs, and the probability of getting out may be greater than that of Italy, and the specific opponent is Turkey.
Turkey's entire team is worth as much as 310 million euros, although far less than Portugal's 780 million euros, but Turkey is in better shape than Portugal, recently won three consecutive World Preliminary Rounds, the most recent victory against Portugal also won, the most recent duel between the two sides was in 2012, Turkey stubbornly defeated Portugal 3-1, the game C Ronaldo missed a penalty in the situation of 1-2 behind, Pepe scored a oolong ball in the final stages, Portugal can be said to have lost miserably.
In terms of playing style, Turkey also has an advantage, they are more holistic, and Char khanoglu, Ilmaz and Seyunju have become the pillars of the central axis of the team. In contrast, Portugal is still relying on C Ronaldo, and C Ronaldo is currently 37 years old, it is difficult to save the overall situation, Portugal needs the most is the young players to come up, from the recent game point of view, Portugal's young players are obviously not ready, the whole team continues to circle around C Ronaldo, C Ronaldo scored 6 goals in 7 World Preliminary Rounds, but the state of 2022 plunged, once representing Manchester United in 10 games only scored 1 goal. Therefore, Portugal may not qualify for the final due to its overall poor performance, and at the same time miss the World Cup.
The specific time of the match between Portugal and Turkey is 3:45 a.m. Beijing time on March 25, and because the match is very critical, CCTV5 confirmed the live broadcast. The match between Italy and North Macedonia played at the same time, and Italy's most recent match against North Macedonia also did not win, and the battle was also a big test for them. Not surprisingly, both games will be played very stiffly.