Portugal vs DR Congo betting Tips and Stats

While I’m expecting Portugal to get their World Cup campaign off to a winning start, I have far less confidence in them keeping a clean sheet, which is why both teams to score appeals.

Roberto Martinez’s side have looked far from watertight defensively in recent times, as evidenced by their two pre-tournament friendly victories over Nigeria and Chile, both of which ended 2-1. Looking further back, the Selecao also failed to keep clean sheets against Armenia and Hungary on home soil during World Cup qualifying, while they suffered a 2-0 defeat away to the Republic of Ireland.

Although DR Congo are returning to the World Cup stage after a 52-year absence, they arrive with several recognisable names in their squad, including Cedric Bakambu and Yoane Wissa. As such, the Leopards should pose a genuine attacking threat and could well land a blow on Portugal’s leaky defence.
Further encouragement comes from DR Congo’s final pre-World Cup friendly, which ended in a 2-1 defeat to Chile.

Back Bruno Fernandes to register either a goal or an assist against DR Congo on Wednesday evening.
The Portuguese playmaker arrives at the tournament in excellent form following a standout season with Manchester United. Remarkably, Fernandes set a new Premier League record for most assists in a single campaign, finishing with 21, while also contributing 9 goals of his own for good measure.

He has also been a consistent source of goals and assists for Portugal over the past 12 months, most notably hitting a hat-trick and an assist in the same match against Armenia on matchday 6 of qualifying. Since then, he has registered 3 goal involvements across Portugal’s 4 subsequent friendly matches in the build-up to the World Cup, including a goal against Chile earlier this month.

Facing a DR Congo side expected to keep this contest competitive, it could well take another moment of Fernandes brilliance to get Portugal off to a winning start in Group K.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka looks worth backing at an attractive price to commit 2 or more fouls on Wednesday evening. The West Ham and DR Congo right-back is likely to find himself tasked with keeping Portugal’s Rafael Leao quiet.

That’s easier said than done. Leao has long been one of Europe’s most effective dribblers and a player capable of drawing fouls on a regular basis. The Portugal winger was brought down 3 times in his side’s recent friendly against Chile, while he was fouled on 6 occasions in last year’s Nations League final against Spain.

Although injuries limited his involvement during World Cup qualifying, Leao was fouled 2 or more times in 3 of his 6 appearances prior to that. It is also worth noting that the AC Milan star drew an average of 1.63 fouls per game in Serie A last season.

All of that highlights the unenviable challenge facing the aforementioned Wan-Bissaka on Wednesday evening. What’s more, the DR Congo defender was penalised twice against Algeria at the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year and committed a foul in the Leopards’ final warm-up match against Chile.