Portugal begin their preparations for the Confederations Cup with a friendly against Cyprus in Estoril, although they will be without Cristiano Ronaldo.
The European champions' star man will be attempting to secure another continental title with his club Real Madrid in the Champions League final on Saturday evening, although he has been named in the Portugal squad for the tournament which starts on 17th June.
Indeed, Fernando Santos has named a strong squad for the Confederations Cup, unlike world champions Germany, and the likes of Barcelona's Andres Gomes, Inter Milan's Joao Mario and Manchester City new boy Bernardo Silva will all be involved.
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Their opponents on Saturday are a Cyprus side who have struggled in front of goal during the five matches matches of their World Cup qualifying campaign so far, with all three of their goals coming against Gibraltar.
The Cypriots are therefore understandable outsiders against the European champions with Betfair offering an away win in Estoril at 20/1 (21.00) with Portugal priced at just 1/7 (1.14) and the draw offered at 11/2 (6.50).
Of course Portugal tend to be less prolific without Cristiano Ronaldo, yet they should still be too strong for a Cyprus team that has lost seven of its last nine friendlies.
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The Portuguese are offered at 61/100 (1.61) to win to nil, and at just 4/7 (1.57) to claim a victory with over 2.5 goals in the game.
For our purposes though, we will take them at 5/6 (1.83) to score three goals or more which should still pay out despite Ronaldo's absence. September saw Portugal claim a 5-0 friendly win over Gibraltar without their top scorer, and the side should be able to score at least three times with this bet paying out in each of the last five meetings between these two nations.
