Portugal takes on Switzerland in Lusail Stadium on Tuesday, Dec. 6, with a place in the quarter-finals up for grabs.
Portugal seemed to be breezing through the group stages but finished with a worrying loss to South Korea.
Switzerland had a mixed group stage. They lost to Brazil, but Swiss fans will point out that they held Brazil to just 0.56 expected goals (xG), the only game in which Brazil has achieved less than 2 xG. In the next game, they came back from 2-1 down to beat Serbia 3-2, a performance any team would have been proud of.
Portugal is undoubtedly the favorite, but it was just over a year ago that Switzerland came back from 3-1 against France in the European Championships to take the game to penalties and send the reigning World Cup champions home.
The winner of this match will take on the winner of Morocco vs. Spain.
Portugal’s Key Player: Bruno Fernandes
Fernandes’ performance against Uruguay was one of the best of the tournament, and he earned a well-deserved spot in our Team of the Round.
The Manchester United midfielder has an 89.7 passing grade and has completed seven defensive-line-breaking passes, both of which are third among all players in the tournament. If Fernandes is pulling the strings with the wealth of attacking talent Portugal has, it’s difficult to see them losing.
Switzerland’s Key Players: Yann Sommer/Gregor Kobel
Switzerland's first-choice goalkeeper has not yet conceded a goal in the 2022 World Cup. He was kept out of the match against Serbia due to an unspecified illness and will likely start against Portugal, although no announcement has been made.
Sommer’s 88.9 shot-stopping grade ranks second in the Bundesliga this season, and it is bested by only Switzerland's second-choice goalkeeper, Gregor Kobel (91.6). Kobel did concede two goals against Serbia, but both were deemed unsavable by our graders.
With Switzerland lacking attacking talent, they will be hoping for a clean sheet and may need penalties to take them to the next stage of the tournament.
Matchup to watch: Cristiano Ronaldo vs. Switzerland’s Central Defenders
Many parts of Ronaldo’s game are not what they once were, but his aerial ability is still elite, as his 80.9 aerial-duel grade can attest.
He will be going against two high-level Premier League center-backs in Newcastle's Fabian Schär and Manchester City’s Manuel Akanji, but neither is especially dominant in the air — Schär has a 72.4 aerial-duel grade, while Akanji has a 71.8 grade.
In what could be his final World Cup match, Ronaldo’s center-forward abilities give Portugal an added dimension that their other attackers can’t match.
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