Portugal W vs USA W prediction: WORLD: World Cup Women betting tips on match 2023-07-31 07:00.
It’s tight at the top of Group E of the Women’s World Cup (WWC) as Portugal’s 2-0 win over Vietnam – their first ever WWC finals victory – put them in with a chance of reaching the knockouts. Chasing more history, a win for the tournament debutants against the USA would guarantee their progress, although a draw would be enough in the unlikely event that Vietnam beat the Netherlands.
Portugal’s 1-0 defeat to the Netherlands remains their only loss across their last five official matches (W2, D2), which included holding European champions England to a goalless draw earlier this month. That should give them cause for cautious optimism as they go up against FIFA’s #1 ranked ride aiming to bridge the 20 place deficit.
Reigning champions and four-time WWC winners USA know all they need to do to qualify for the last 16 is avoid defeat in the final round. But after having had to work hard to draw 1-1 with the Netherlands in their second outing of this tournament, they won’t be taking anything for granted – even if they haven’t conceded in the four H2Hs held across the last five years (W4).
This is somewhat uncharted territory as the Americans have never failed to reach the WWC knockouts and aren’t usually under pressure to deliver on matchday three. History is on their side as they’ve only ever lost one WWC group stage game (2-1 vs Sweden in 2011), and encouragingly for USWNT fans, coach Vlatko Andonovski seems optimistic: "I think we are just going to get better from game to game, and we are going to be a lot more efficient as well.”
Players to watch: Portugal will want Telma Encarnação to give them a good start after she opened the scoring in two of their last five official games, including in the seventh minute against Vietnam. On the contrary, Lindsey Horan has scored after the 60th minute of three of USA’s last five games, including both fixtures at this tournament.
Hot streak: None of Portugal’s last four full internationals witnessed a goal after half-time (W2, D1, L1).