Portugal v Uruguay: World Cup 2022 – live

Uruguay’s is the kind of tune you hear at a classical concert and gets people closing eyes and tossing heads.

Anthem time. I like both of these, but I can’t say I’m not pumped for Wales’ tomorrow, nor missing Italy’s.

Here come our teams!

“With a banger like this behind them,” says Kiera Healy, “how could Portugal fail?”

Catchy like flu.

“Santos’ perfect performance,” emails Ajinkya Sathe, “looks like the one with Ronaldo scoring, him being taken off for additional defender and Ronaldo giving tactical on-field instructions to his teammates while Santos looks exasperated (as he almost always does even in the happy moments).”

Ha! I find the pace his side doesn’t have especially odd – when was that a nice to have in any football team?

Looking at the matchup, I don’t think either side will play with much width, principally because neither manager has picked a winger. Uruguay will be relying on their wing-backs, while Portugal may have Bruno and Felix nominally playing down the sides, or may not even have that. So Portugal will, I think, be relying on their full-backs to get forward with Carvalho dropping in, and look for their nimble little guys to find space in the middle; Uruguay will be hoping Valverde makes something happen.

Huddle around your wireless and pretend it’s dinnertime.

“Why are so many games between the big names so awful?” wonders Aaron Roston. “I don’t remember the group games being quite so terrible and boring. All the good matches have been with teams in the lower tiers. This matchup is shaping up to be another stinker. Ronaldo? Suarez? Both past it.”

I dunno – Spain v Germany was excellent. But more generally, I agree we’ve not had proper latter-stages epics since 2006, never mind latter-stages epics to compare to Brazil v Italy and West Germany v France in 1982; Brazil v France in 1986; West Germany v England and Italy v Argentina from 1990.

ITV have got Souness, Robson-Kanu and Cole in the studio. All have their value and Cole, I think, is excellent – but surely they could find someone with a bit of expertise when it comes to these two teams?

The more I think about Portugal, the more frustration I feel. They should be such a team, but they’re not and don’t look like they’re going to be – and given how Uruguay are going to play, surely they could’ve used only one of Neves and Carvalho, to get Leao in. It’s really hard to know what Santos’ perfect performance looks like.

“It’s alright living in Portugal, you know,” emails Andrew Brown of form 2AF – how I wish internet slang had existed when we were 13. “The weather’s nice, the food’s decent, the people are mostly not expletives, except that they are all a bit depressed, and obsessed with football to an extent that they don’t deserve to be, given how generally rubbish their domestic league is. All their teams bar the big three are naught but feeders either for them or for other, richer European leagues. Watching any league or cup game in this country is almost always a dull and frustrating experience. Their international competition teams, on the other hand, are really quite something. And if they get through to the knockout stages, most of my students are going to skip classes to watch the match, and talk about nothing else. I assume by then England will have swandived face-first into our own boots and hubris, so it will at least be something interesting to watch the locals attempt to be outgoing and happy, only to presumably have their own hopes efficiently crushed by the likes of France or Spain or somesuch, enabling them to return to their usual pursuits of having a long lunch break, complaining, and watching terrible 10pm kickoff fixtures between FC Nowhere and Atletico Suburb of Nowhere.”

Super Bock and pasteis de nata can redeem many ills.

Back to the teams, it seems the Portugal XI I looked up was incorrect – thanks Marco Vaza for pointing that out. Nuno Mendes also comes in, for Raphael Guerreiro.

On the subject of Ghana, this is tremendous behaviour.

“Uruguayan here,” says Pablo Miguez. “I hope we win but would be happy with a draw. We’d reach the last round knowing a win against Ghana would send us to the round of 16. Problem with drawing or losing tonight is that even if we beat Ghana, Brazil would await in the round of 16 and bye Qatar. So, let’s try to win tonight. VAMOOOOS!”

I actually think Uruguay are good enough to beat anyone on a good day – I can’t lie, I had an each-way tickle on them at 40s. I guess a win in the last game is fair, but it’s pressure – if they’d been less circumspect against South Korea, they’d probably have a couple more points.

Lest we forget.

Email! “Pepe versus Nunez promises top-drawer forehead-to-forehead posturing, needling, and swearing,” pines Peter Oh, desperate for the aforementioned EVERYTHING that NO ONE wants to see action. We can but hope – though I remember buzzing for Pepe v Morelos when Porto played Rangers last season and we ended up with nowt.

As for Uruguay, they go to three at the back. That means Coates comes in for Caceres, Varela replaces Pellistri, and Suarez loses his spot to Cavani – which makes a lot of sense to me. Uruguay want to make this a horrible game, threaten from set-pieces, and give Valverde greater scope; all those changes help them do that. It’s funny really, that Suarez and Cavani are the same age, Suarez was miles better at his peak and now in their dotage it’s Cavani who’s superior.

I also think Portugal can be more mobile in midfield. Neves can pass it nicely when given time on the ball, but he’s also slow – whereas Palhinha would gives greater defensive solidity and also greater mobility.

So Portugal make three changes to the team that scraped by Ghana, Mendes in for Gurreiro at left-back and the injured Danilo and Otavio replaced at centre-back and in midfield by Pepe and Carvalho respectively. I’m dearly hoping there’s a valedictory something that no one wants to see from the former – come on Pepe. Otherwise, I’m guessing when I say Fernando Santos is playing a box midfield and maybe I’m just hoping that Bruno isn’t being wasted on the right with Felix was ted on the left. Of course, the sensible option – some may say – would be to leave Ronaldo on the bench, bring in Leao, and try to play with some pace while getting the most out those at their peak. But that’s not going to happen.

Portugal (4-4 box-2): Digo Costa; Cancelo, Dias, Pepe, Mendes; Neves, Carvalho, Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes; Felix, Ronaldo. Subs: Rui Patricio, Sa, Dalot, Mendes, Antonio Silva, Palhinha, Vitinha, Joao Mario, Nunez, Andre Silva, Leao, Horta, Ramos

Uruguay (3-5-2): Rochet; Gimenez, Godin, Coates; Varela, Valverde, Bentancur, Vecino, Olivera; Nunez, Cavani. Subs: Muslera, Sosa, Vina, Caceres, Rodriguez, Ugarte, Torrreira, Canobbio, De La Cruz, Arrascarta, Pellistri, Suarez, Torres, Gomez.

Brazil are into the last 16 thanks to Carlos Casemiro’s excellent hit. All the reaction here:

At the 2002 World Cup, we were treated to group stages of unusual excitement, losing both France – the holders – and Argentina – the second favourites. The problem was that South Korea then found a way by Italy and Spain, so that at the business end of things we were left with ties that felt predictable and duly went as expected. Epics there were not.

Also eliminated in that roundrobin were Portugal and Uruguay – though neither were serious contenders to win that competition, which is not the case as regards this one. There’s a brilliant steam hiding in the Seleção squad that includes perhaps the most vibrant, varied and interesting array of attackers in the world. But we’ve seen little to make us believe Fernando Santos is likely to find it so, like one or two other countries, as things stand they’re relying on their better players doing enough good stuff at big moments to see them progress.

That was what happened in Portugal’s opener – a gift of a penalty followed by a purple patch that should’ve settled things – before Ghana were inexplicably ushered back into a game that looked over, the difference between victory and embarrassment an Iñaki Williams slip. But they got there in the end, know that the best side in the group stages is rarely the side dancing around following the final – and yet could really use a performance tonight.

Not, though, as much as Uruguay, who made sure not to lose their first game, but didn’t win it when they’ll have expected to. And though, even if they lose tonight, a win over Ghana will probably take them through, they won’t want to go into that needing three points, so will banking on an improved performance.

The good news for them – and us – is that they’re more than capable of that, terrifying in defence and with attacking players able to conjure all sorts. Which is to say that , at the end of an already-colossal day, we’re going to end it – and the competition’s Tetris period – with a prime cut of World Cup Football^TM.

Kick-off: 10pm local, 7pm GMT