Portugal and Greece are playing an international friendly for the World Cup on Saturday and the match starts at 2:30 pm ET from the National Stadium of Estádio do Jamor and comes as the Portuguese are dealing with an injury to Cristiano Ronaldo after winning big over Cameroon and they have another match coming against Mexico before Brazil 2014 begins.
Losing Ronaldo will be a big loss, but he is expected to be back for the World Cup and he will be needed, as Portugal is in the toughest group in the tournament in Group G aka the Group of Death and they will play against the United States, Germany and Ghana in the tournament. The US has the worst travel schedule of anyone in the tournament and Portugal also has a tough draw to deal with and if Ronaldo is not 100 percent it could be tough for the team to get out of the group because there will be such a small margin for error. While the USA is not likely to get out of the group, they are a tough team as well and no one is looking forward to playing them.
Portugal comes in after a dominating friendly against Cameroon, while they also play against Mexico at Gillette Stadium and then against Ireland in NY at MetLife Stadium before the tournament begins. The actual Brazil tournament starts on June 12 and Brazil will open against Croatia and that will be a big matchup. Portugal comes in after winning over Sweden to get into the World Cup and finish things off and while the team has a tough group, they also have arguably the best player in the world and that always gives them an advantage.
Ronaldo has been hampered by an injury and as it gets closer to the World Cup the Portuguese side is hoping that he can be fit ahead of the first match and this has been affecting Ronaldo since the end of the season for Real Madrid, who won the Champions League tournament. Ronaldo will not play against Greece in the friendly game and has missed some training session and after only playing 90 minutes over the finals 10 games for Real Madrid apart from the UCL final, he will need time to get fit.
Ronaldo is getting the best treatment he can and will be looking to get back as soon as possible and there is a chance he will miss the next matchups before the World Cup. Portugal plays against the United States in Group G for the tournament and that is their second game and will be in the amazon stadium and the first game comes against Germany and that is on Monday, June 16 before the team later plays Ghana and this should be one of the best groups and one of the toughest to get out of. If Ronaldo is not able to go, that could change the outcome of that group greatly and he should be ready for the game against the US.
Check here for the Portugal and Greece live stream coverage for the World Cup friendly.
