Nations League Tips: France v Portugal

Despite being world champions, France have become known as a side which often grind out wins by a tighter scoreline. Didier Deschamps has evidently implemented a similar sort of playing style to his side which mirrors how he played during his career: a solid, hard-working midfielder.

Eight of their 14 wins since their triumph in Russia have been by a scoreline of either 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1, with the only exceptions coming against much lower-ranked opposition, such as Andorra, Moldova, Albania and Iceland.

Three of the last four meetings between these two have also produced one of these scorelines in favour of the French, the only admission is the Euro 2016 final, which ended 0-0 after 90 minutes.

Portugal have not defeated France in 90 minutes since a friendly in 1975, and a low scoring win for the world champions is available at odds of 7/4 with Sky Bet.

The head-to-head everyone will be keeping an eye on is undoubtedly the two superstars on either side: Kylian Mbappe vs Cristiano Ronaldo.

Ronaldo’s scoring record doesn’t need any introduction, but he became just the second player in footballing history to reach 100 goals for his country after his double against Sweden took him to 101 Portugal last month.

Mbappe, on the other hand, is at the opposite end of his international career and despite being just 21, he already has 35 France caps and 14 goals, including the winner against Sweden last month before sitting out their 4-2 win over Croatia.

Should both teams score here, you would expect to see these two involved and Mbappe and Ronaldo to score is priced at 6/1.

The vast majority of Portugal attacks will end with a Ronaldo shot, and often a goal, as it has done for the past 15 years. At his club Juventus, Ronaldo has already attempted an average of seven shots per 90 minutes in the three games thus far, with an average of three being on target.

Ronaldo is also on free kick and penalty duty for Portugal, naturally increasing the likelihood of yet another shot on target. Furthermore, the Portuguese superstar also attempted seven shots in his sole Portugal appearance so far this season against Sweden last month.

Now 35, Ronaldo will hope to test Hugo Lloris' consistently this time around, and we’re backing him to have at least three shots on target here with odds of 10/3.

By Andrew Delaney