Can you imagine a World Cup without Cristiano Ronaldo and Diogo Jota?<\/p>\n
Well that could happen as Portugal struggles to qualify for the FIFA World Cup later this year.<\/p>\n
They were beaten to an automatic ticket in their group by Serbia and will now navigate through the playoff to earn a spot in the competition.<\/p>\n
The first game on their Playoff path is against a Turkish side that also underperformed in the qualifying groups, but cannot be underrated.<\/p>\n
They have some of the finest players in Europe in different positions and they will certainly cause troubles for the Portuguese in this match.<\/p>\n
Portugal has not won any of their last two international matches and that contributed to why they failed to get a World Cup ticket automatically.<\/p>\n
They even lost their last game at home to Serbia and Turkey will feel they can also stun the host in this match.<\/p>\n
The Turks won their last three qualifying matches and haven’t lost any of their last four games ahead of this match. That form could prove pivotal in this match and Portugal cannot afford to underestimate their opponents until the 90 minutes is over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Can you imagine a World Cup without Cristiano Ronaldo and Diogo Jota? Well that could happen as Portugal struggles to qualify for the FIFA World Cup later this year. They were beaten to an automatic ticket in their group by Serbia and will now navigate through the playoff to earn a spot in the competition. The first game on their Playoff path is against a Turkish side that also underperformed in the qualifying groups, but cannot be underrated. They have some of the finest players in Europe in different positions and they will certainly cause troubles for the Portuguese in this match. Portugal has not won any of their last two international matches and that contributed to why they failed to get a World Cup ticket automatically. They even lost their last game at home to Serbia and Turkey will feel they can also stun the host in this match. The Turks won their last three qualifying matches and haven’t lost any of their last four games ahead of this match. That form could prove pivotal in this match and Portugal cannot afford to underestimate their opponents until the 90 minutes is over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,157,194],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","category-match-preview","category-world-cup-qualifier"],"yoast_head":"\n