2022 World Cup: Former Portugal assistant coach Lionel Pontes tips Portugal and Uruguay to qualify from Ghana’s group

Former assistant coach of the Portuguese national team Lionel Pontes expects his former outfit to progress alongside Uruguay from their group, which also include Ghana.

The Seleçao has been drawn in Group H of this year’s global tournament, and will face Ghana, Uruguay, and South Korea in Group H.

Fernando Santos and his charges take on Ghana in the opening game.

Ahead of the tournament, Lionel Pontes, a member of the Portugal national team that participated at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil has tipped his native country to qualify with Uruguay ahead of Ghana.

“A diverse group that plays football very differently from Portugal, which includes 3 teams from 3 other continents: Ghana from Africa, Uruguay from South America, and South Korea from Asia”

“But Portugal is better than its competitors in the group, through the quality of the players, and I expect it to qualify with Uruguay for the next round”

“We are one of the best teams in the world, but we just need defensive toughness, and a good dose of tactical and strategic elements”

“We beat Ghana, in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, we know it’s a team with good players, it uses a lot of strength, associated with a lot of technical quality, but it’s not very strict tactically” he said.