Portugal will look to salvage its World Cup qualification campaign when it takes on Luxembourg in its final World Cup Qualifier of the current cycle.
Three points separate Portugal from top seed Russia, but the Seleçao needs some luck (and lots of goals) to be able to qualify.
The Portuguese are coming off a tough match against Israel at home in which they blew a 1-0 lead late in the game. Goalie Rui Patricio passed the ball up the middle while under pressure and wound up giving it right an oncoming Israeli player; the ball wound up in the back of the net.
As the match wound down, Captain Cristiano Ronaldo punted the ball away during a stoppage and was given a yellow card. The yellow card means that the Real Madrid superstar will not be available for the match on Tuesday. However, he will be around when Portugal heads to the playoff rounds next month.
"I can't talk about that," Ronaldo said about the yellow card according to ESPN. "FIFA is always very attentive to those situations. The playoff is the most important and I don't want to be out. I will be at those two matches."
Regarding his team's performance, Ronaldo was not complimentary.
"We have to improve in many aspects," he said. "Israel had two buses behind the ball and when it's like that it's hard to score.
"We were apathetic in the second half, looked sleepy even, and things did not go well," he added. "We lacked a bit of maturity at times -- maybe it was because we had a young team with a lot of changes."
Portugal needs Russia to lose in its game Azerbaijan and must win against Luxembourg to have any chance at first place. Furthermore, the Seleçao must diminish the +8 goal differential in Russia's favor.
Prediction: Portugal wins 5-0.
Start Time: 1 p.m. EST
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