Qatar vs Portugal

This a friendly match I rarely post picks on but will make an exception here.. Qatar will hosts the World Cup next year but would never have qualified for the tournament! They have the money to invest in football and are not a bad team as such but Portugal are simply much stronger. Qatar's domestic league is know for being the " near retirement cash cow" for top players at the end of their career - for example Barcelona legend Xavi plays for Al Saad but the league is low level but improving slowly of course. Qatar's best strikers Ali Almoez and Afmed Alaaeldin play in this league for Al-Duhail and Al-Gharafa respectively which tells a lot about how limited the team is by international standards.. Qatar have not beaten a big football country in years - beating Croatia's B team on the 30th of June does not really count. Beating Honduras (2-0) is a decent achievement but they were some 38% favorites according to the betting market or El Salvador 3-2 (52% favorites) - let alone defeating a very bad team Grenada so it is not anything to be too excited about. Versus El Salvador they were in fact lucky to win - El Salvador had some 65% ball possession and created more expected goals too. On Wednesday they were totally dominated by Serbia - who played a draw with Portugal in March after a quite balanced match - and lost 0-4 despite Serbia resting their best players. Perhaps the score was a bit too flattering for Serbia but Portugal are, of course, an even better team by raw class. Football as a sport is on the rise in Qatar but it is a long way to even a decent international level in the most competitive sport on the planet- even with all the financial resources available. For example India too has invested heavily in football but the results are not there yet.. Qatar would have to improve a lot to stand a chance versus Portugal tonight. Especially their defense is very vulnerable.

Portugal, European Champions in 2016, needs no long introduction - they are one of the winning candidates even in Qatar in the World Cup and can do better than they did last summer in EURO 2020. With some luck they could have beaten Belgium and qualified to face the eventual champions Italy. The pick is mainly based on Qatar being very limited but also on the fact that Portugal's second best line-up they are mostly likely to play - or at least start with here is better than many seem to believe resulting in even the pretty low odds having value here. Every player will be 100% motivated to prove themselves and fight for a place in the World Cup team. All Portugal's players are better than any of the Qatari players. A possible Portuguese starting lineup: Costa, Semedo, Duarte, Dias, Mendes, Pereira, Neves, Moutinho, Otavio, A. Silva, Guedes.

To sum up, high confidence on Portugal winning - probably by many goals' margin!

本译文使用有道机器翻译，仅供参考：

这是一场友谊赛，我很少发布选择，但将在这里做一个例外。卡塔尔将主办明年的世界杯，但却永远无法获得参赛资格!他们有钱在足球上投资，也不是一支坏球队，但葡萄牙要强大得多。对于即将退役的顶级球员来说，卡塔尔的国内联赛是他们“接近退休的摇钱树”。例如，巴塞罗那传奇球星哈维为萨阿德效力，但联赛水平较低，当然进步缓慢。卡塔尔最好的前锋Ali Almoez和Afmed Alaaeldin分别为Al-Duhail和Al-Gharafa效力，这充分说明了以国际标准衡量，这支球队是多么的有限。卡塔尔已经好几年没有击败过足球大国了——在6月30日击败克罗地亚的B队不算。击败洪都拉斯(2-0)是一个不错的成绩，但根据博彩市场，他们有38%的热门，萨尔瓦多3-2(52%的热门)，更不用说打败一个非常糟糕的球队格林纳达了，所以没什么好兴奋的。对阵萨尔瓦多时，他们实际上是幸运的——萨尔瓦多有65%的控球率，创造了更多的预期进球。在周三的比赛中，他们被塞尔维亚完全控制了。3月份，塞尔维亚在一场势均力敌的比赛中与葡萄牙战平，尽管塞尔维亚让他们最好的球员休息，他们还是0-4输掉了比赛。也许这个比分对塞尔维亚来说有点太过份了，但是葡萄牙当然是一支更优秀的球队。足球作为一项运动在卡塔尔正在崛起，但在这个星球上最具竞争性的运动中，要达到像样的国际水平还有很长的路要走——即使有所有可用的财政资源。例如，印度也在足球上投入了大量资金，但结果还没有出来。卡塔尔必须提高很多才能在今晚对阵葡萄牙的比赛中有机会。特别是他们的防御是非常脆弱的。

葡萄牙，2016年欧洲杯冠军，不需要再介绍了——他们甚至是卡塔尔世界杯的冠军候选人之一，他们可以比去年夏天在2020年欧洲杯上做得更好。如果运气好的话，他们本可以击败比利时，并有资格面对最终的冠军意大利。这个选择主要是基于卡塔尔的实力非常有限，但同时也是因为葡萄牙第二好的阵容最有可能上场——或者至少从这里开始比许多人认为的要好，因此即使赔率很低，在这里也有价值。每个球员都将以100%的积极性来证明自己，并为在世界杯球队中的一个位置而奋斗。所有葡萄牙的球员都比卡塔尔的球员强。可能的首发阵容有:科斯塔、塞梅多、杜阿尔特、迪亚斯、门德斯、佩雷拉、内维斯、穆迪尼奥、奥塔维奥、席尔瓦、盖德斯。

总而言之，我们对葡萄牙队的胜利充满信心——很有可能以多球领先!