Spain vs. Portugal Predictions: Side with the points to be shared in Seville

Ten UEFA Nations League matches take place on Thursday evening with Spain against Portugal the stand-out fixture on paper. Here at BettingOdds.com we’ve previewed the game and provided you with our favourite fancies for the proceedings in Seville. 

Spain and Portugal are in League A, Group 2, along with the Czech Republic and Switzerland in the Nations League group stage. The Spaniards are priced as the 6/1 favourites to lift the trophy in June 2023 behind France at 7/2. Portugal were the inaugural winners of the competition back in 2019 but can be backed at a double figure price of around 10/1 with several firms to repeat their success this time round.

Spain have not tasted defeat on home soil since all the way back in 2018 when England beat them 3-2 in the Nations League in Seville. The hosts head into this match off the back of a four game winning streak under Luis Enqriue and are priced at around 6/5 to kick off their campaign with a win.

Portugal were forced into the play-offs when looking to qualify for the 2022 World Cup after finishing second in Group A, after losing 2-1 to table-toppers Serbia in the final round of qualification group fixtures. A Selecao managed to overcome Turkey and North Macedonia with relative ease in the play-offs and now head here. 

In terms of team news, Thiago has returned to the squad after the Champions League final although Aymeric Laporte is set to miss out through injury. Eric Garcia should slot in and partner Pau Torres at centre-back, with Pedri also sidelined due to a hamstring injury. Laporte’s Manchester City teammate Ruben Dias will also miss this match, while Premier League representatives Cristiano Ronaldo, Diogo Jota, Joao Cancelo, Joao Moutinho, Bernardo Silva and Bruno Fernandes should all start from the off for the visitors. 

Michael Oliver will be the referee for this game and card-backers may want to tread carefully considering the English official had one of the lowest yellow card averages in the top-flight this season. Oliver dished out just 2.88 cautions per game in 2021/2022, ranking him 18th of the 22 to officiate in the Premier League when it came to the highest ratio of yellow cards per match. 

One selection we do like the look of, is for this match to be a draw. It may not be the most glamorous of plays at 12/5 with bet365 but looking back in history stalemates have been a common occurrence between this pair from the Iberian Peninsula. 

Spain have faced Portugal on 12 occasions since 1991 with eight of those finishing as a draw. Looking at more modern meetings, the last four have all finished with the sides sharing the points. The most recent of those came in June 2021 with the two playing out a goalless draw in Madrid.

For punters who are looking for something at a bit more of a price, we like the look of a selection from the Correct Score market that is linked with our first bet. We already mentioned above how all four of the last meetings between Spain and Portugal have ended in a draw, although it’s worth noting that three of those have finished with the scoreline of 0-0.

Neither side will want to lose out here in their first match of the group stage and we think it will be a rather tight and cagey game. Spain have been exceptional at home over the last few years, but a team with Cristiano Ronaldo can never be written off, especially considering he’s still firing in the goals with 24 in 37 appearances across the Premier League and Champions League for United this season. All things considered 9/1 looks a fair price with BetVictor, with a couple of points bigger potentially available on the Betfair Exchange as more money comes into the market.