This match looks like a World Cup semifinal or quarterfinals, however, these teams have failed to qualify for Russia 2018 and have just begun a major rebuilding work for Euro 2020. The Netherlands finished 3rd behind Sweden in their group stage while the Italians suffered playoffs defeat at the hands of the same Swedes. If you have a good look at the current options that both teams have, you would realize that their failure to qualify for the World Cup is more than to their fall from grace rather than the brilliance of Sweden. The retirement of several key players have hit the Netherlands hard and Ronald Koeman seems to have a big job on his hands in terms of bringing back the glory days. The current group have the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Giorgino Wijnaldum who reached the Champions League final, but there is so much inexperience withing them with Justin Kluivert leading a new generation. Italy have a slightly more experienced squad, however, only Mario Balotelli has more than 6 goals for the Azurris and their midfield is led by Alessandro Florenzi who is the only midfielder in the squad who has more than 10 caps. The Italians have won two and drawn two of their last five friendly matches against the Netherlands.  

Belgium’s talented squad head to this summer’s World Cup as favourites yet again and this game offers Roberto Martinez the chance to test his selected players against reigning European champions, Portugal. Portugal defended their way to victory in Euro 2016, and they have selected almost the same group of defenders, however, it seems very unlikely for them to record the same kind of success at the World and seeing them throw away a 2-goal lead to draw 2-2 against Tunisia in their last game would bother their fans. The Portuguese major concern should be their ageing defence, however, with Christiano Ronaldo yet to join them, their lack of quality on the attack has also become evident. They would be banking on Bernado Silva lead them to victory here. Belgium would be happy to see how old the Portuguese defenders are especially as they are a team buzzing with attacking talents. Belgium bagged 43 goals in 10 qualifying games and they have netted in 19 of their last 20 friendly games ahead of this game. The Belgians have also been boosted by the return to fitness of Romelu Lukaku who netted 11 times in the qualifiers, and he has netted in his last six Belgium games. Portugal beat Belgium at home 2-1 the last time these teams met in 2016.  

Although they failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup in Russia, Austria come into this game in top form having avoided defeats in their last 6 games and have kept a clean sheet in their last 3 matches leading up to this encounter. They would, however, need to do better than they did in their last match against Russia which they won, if they want to get a result against the defending world champions here. Germany are surprisingly in a bad form leading up to this game as they have failed to win any of their last five matches. However, this game would be their first warm up before the World Cup and their fans would be hoping for a better performance from them here. The result is not useful for the Germans anyway so we expect their manager to do some experimentations here. Germany’s poor form in their previous matches has been down to their bluntness in attack as they managed just 1 shot on target against Brazil. They have named a strong offensive team and this game should show what they would do at the World Cup. Germany have an excellent result in this fixture as they have won all of the last nine games involving these teams.

This game brings together two of Brazil’s biggest teams head to head and the home side would be looking to take advantage of their home crowd to get the maximum points after 90 minutes. Gremio have one of the strongest squads in the division and this is evidenced by them lifting the Copa Libertadores last season, however, they have still failed to win the Brazilian Serie A since 1996 and this season may be their last hope before teams start buying off their star men. After their 1-0 win at the weekend, Gremio are currently 5th on the league table with 12 points from their first seven games. They have also secured advancements in the Brazilian Cup and the Copa Libertadores, keeping their hopes of a treble alive. They are unbeaten in 14 home games and they would be fighting to preserve that here. Fluminense have made a surprisingly good start to the season after underachieving for the last few years. They currently have 13 points from their opening seven games which has helped them to sit second on the Serie A standings. They beat Chapecoense 3-1 in their last league game and would be eager to get another three points here, however, their small squad would come under some serious tests beginning from this game as they face playing two games per week right until the World Cup. These sides met 4 times last season across league and cup and Gremio were dominant, running out victorious on each occasion. In the 4 meetings, Gremio scored 8 times with Fluminense managing just a single goal.

New England Revolution started the season with a defeat at the hands of Philadephia Union, but they recovered from that to win three of their opening five games and never tasted defeat until a month after their first loss. But it seems they have now hit a bad patch and their current form should worry their fans. They played out a thriller in their 3-3 draw against Vancouver Whitecaps at the weekend, but they have managed just two wins from their last seven MLS games and three of those games have ended in losses. They are now sixth on the Eastern conference table and they would be eager to avoid their near-miss situation from last season. Atlanta United are one of the newest teams in the MLS, yet their 7-0 win over New England Revolution in their very first MLS match is still fresh on the minds of both fans, coupled with their current good run of form, that could see them win here again with superior mental strength. Atlanta are even a better side from last season and they come into this game as the leader of the Eastern Conference despite losing their last game New York Red Bulls. They are level on points with Columbus Crew who are second, but they have two games in hand and they couldn’t have wished for a better start to the season. They have won eight of their 12 league games this season and scored an impressive 26 goals in the process, and whilst two of their three defeats have come in the last few weeks, both came on home soil. Away from home Atlanta United have won four games on the trot now, with their sole defeat coming back on the opening weekend of the season against Houston Dynamo.  

After missing out on World Cup qualification, Romania have picked up some form in the friendlies ahead of this game. They recovered well from a loss to the Netherlands by beating Israel 2-0 away from home before following that up with a 1-0 win over World Cup participants, Sweden. This game offers them the chance to collect three wins on the trot. Chile also failed to qualify for the World Cup in a more surprising turn of events. They followed up their disappointment with a win over Sweden also before being held by Denmark in their next match. Although they are a star-studded side, they seem to be hot and cold, it would be interesting to see which Chile turns up for this game. Romania have developed their offensive side of play since missing out on the world and netting twice in Isreal was impressive, scoring against a Sweden side that is notorious for digging deep to get a result even does more to show that Romania can hurt any team at the moment. These sides seem to find the net more often as they have both found the back of the net in four of their last five friendly games, both notching up eight goals in the process respectively.

Portugal gets their preparation for Russia 2018 underway with this friendly match against Tunisia who are also headed for the world football showpiece. One player who would be missing this game is Christiano Ronaldo who helped Real Madrid to win their third consecutive Champions League title in Kyiv on Saturday. Going by how important he would be to Portugal in the World Cup, we feel they should have waited a little longer so he can join them. This game offers the Portuguese the chance to give some of their up-and-coming players the chance to impress, however, they risk coming off as a one-man team here and in the competition when it begins if the next generation fails to kick on in this game. They play Morocco in the finals, and they would be hoping Tunisia can help them understand how the North Africans would play. Tunisia would be playing against England and Belgium in Russia and they see this game as one to help them play the Europeans when the competition begins. We expect them to defend deep in this game and that would see the Portuguese struggle as they seem to be very blunt in their attack when C. Ronaldo does not play for them. Ronaldo scored almost half of Portugal’s 32 goals in the qualifiers with 15, he and Andre Silva netted a combined 25 goals for the European champions. Silva, however, would struggle to lead the attack without Ronaldo after coming into this summer off the back of a poor first season in Milan.

This match pits South Korea together with Honduras who nearly qualified for the World Cup before falling to defeat at the hands of Australia in the playoffs. The South Koreans have suffered some dip in form since they secured qualification for the World Cup. Would they get back to winning ways here ahead of their next three other warm-up games or would Honduras get revenge over an Asian country? The hosts find themselves in one of the toughest World Cup groups that include Germany, Sweden and Mexico. They have a chance of making it to the knockout rounds, but they have to pick up some form as they seem to have been on holiday mood for a while now. They secured World cup qualification since September last year with two goalless draws in their last two matches. However, they have struggled to defend in their friendlies so far as they have conceded 14 goals in their last six friendlies beginning with a 4-2 loss against Russia and ending in a 3-2 loss to Poland, they know they need to up their game if they want to survive their World Cup group. Honduras would be stepping into the field of play for the first time since their 3-1 loss to Australia in the playoffs in November. This match would see them come up against a team competing in the World Cup, but they would be confident that they can stretch the Koreans’ run of games without keeping a clean sheet having conceded in their last six games already.

Having ended the 2016 and 2017 season as league champions, it must have hurt really bad for Copenhagen to see themselves in fourth position this season. In truth, they never really threatened the top two teams, but this game offers them the chance to finish the season in a European place. If Copenhagen can beat this Aarhus side that finished the season in the tenth position, they can finish in a Europa League spot. Judging by how easily they have dispatched teams on their home turf this season, that shouldn’t be too much to ask of them. Aarhus come into this game still struggling defensively like they did when both sides met the last time, and they would need to be better than they have been in recent weeks to get a result in this game. The last time they visited this venue, they conceded 4 times. The hosts, who come here having conceded at least once in all but one of their last ten matches, have been by no means secure defensively this season, so the visitors, who have scored plenty of goals recently, won’t hesitate to have a go. Profiting offensively may not be beyond Aarhus, though keeping things tight at the back is likely to be a step too far, especially since they’ve struggled to hold off lesser opposition in recent weeks.