Euro 2016 preview and odds: Portugal vs Wales

Published on: 05/07/2016

Euro 2016 preview and odds: Portugal vs Wales

Stade de Lyon, Lyon - 20:00pm 06 July 2016

Semi-finals

Portugal will take part in their fifth European Championship semi-final on Wednesday when take on a Wales side who have reached the last four at their very first attempt.

Can Wales go all the way?

Portugal and Wales have never played a competitive match but will now go head-to-head for the first time in a European Championship semi-final match. The sides have met three times before in friendly matches with Portugal having won two matches to Wales` one.

By reaching the semi-final stage on their Euro finals debut, Wales have equalled the feat achieved by Sweden back in 1992. Meanwhile, Portugal will be playing in their fifth semi-final and have been installed as pre-match favourites by the bookies.

Portugal have yet to win any of their Euro 2016 matches in normal time, having drawn all three group stage games and gone to extra-time or penalties in the knockout rounds. In contrast, Wales have won four of their five game in 90 minutes - the only blot on their record being the 2-1 defeat to England.

Wales have been much more efficient that Portugal in front of goal, having scored one goal for every 5.9 attempts compared to Portugal`s ratio of 1 in 15.8.

Form (all competitions):

Portugal: WWDDD

Wales: WWWLW

Betting predictions

Portugal will start as favourites but Wales have a better record at this tournament and look a real threat. In particular, their destruction of Belgium proved their ability to compete with the elite teams in the tournament. As a result, they looked well-priced to win this game.

You can back Wales to qualify by any means at 8/5 or at 3/1 to win in 90 minutes - both with Bet365.

By Neil Morris

Published on: 05/07/2016

Any odds displayed within this preview were correct at the time of publishing (05/07/2016 14:28:42) but are subject to change.