Portugal vs Switzerland LIVE: World Cup 2022 team news and line-ups with Cristiano Ronaldo dropped

In every aspect Switzerland are the underdogs heading into this match. Betfair has them as the most unlikely winners of the entire tournament after Morocco’s victory over Spain.

Here are the latest odds:

Portugal vs Switzerland winner

To win the 2022 World Cup

This will be the third meeting between Portugal and Switzerland in 2022, having faced each other twice in the Nations League in June.

Portugal won 4-0 in a match played in Lisbon, before Switzerland won 1-0 in Geneva a week later.

One reason could be that Portugal coach Fernando Santos says he “really didn’t like” Ronaldo’s reaction to being substituted in the World Cup defeat by South Korea.

As Ronaldo was taken off he had a verbal outburst in the direction of his coach but has denied his words were meant for Santos.

“I am not worried if information is right or wrong,” said Santos. “I do not read this type of information. I am focused on my team. We are focusing on training and not paying attention to any polls [in the Portuguese media].

“Yes, I did not like it, not at all [Ronaldo’s outburst]. I really did not like it and from that moment on that issue [it] is finished.”

A now vintage Spanish elimination, a historic Moroccan victory. They have ensured this first ever World Cup in the Muslim world still has a Muslim country involved, and prevented the usual carve-up between Europe and South America. Morocco have reached the quarter-finals for the first time, and fully deserved it.

It was Luis Enrique himself who said Walid Regragui’s side are the “revelations of this World Cup”. They’re even more than that now.

If it points to a new world, and came from a side that have announced themselves as someone no one wants to face, much of that was from exploiting the same old Spanish flaws. They go out at the last-16 stage on penalties for the second successive World Cup, again playing over 1,000 passes in a match, and that ensuring that Luis Enrique’s demand for his players to hit over 1,000 penalties in the last year meant nothing. They scored none of their three penalties.

“I couldn’t care less about the result,” Luis Enrique had said in the build-up to Spain’s latest bid to get past the World Cup’s first knockout round. He will care about this one, a magnificent Morocco instead earning the best in their history and a first-ever quarter-final place with it.

It came in a penalty shootout, just as it did against Russia four years ago at the same stage, Enrique’s directive to “take 1,000 penalties” before this tournament a year ago evidently not heeded.

Who will Morocco face in the quarter-finals? We’re about to find out as Portugal vs Switzerland is up next. The huge team news is that Portugal have dropped Cristiano Ronaldo to the bench.

Here’s a look at both line-ups:

Portugal XI: Diogo Costa, Raphael Guerreiro, Ruben Dias, Pepe, Diogo Dalot, Bernardo Silva, William Carvalho, Otavio, Joao Felix, Goncalo Ramos, Bruno Fernandes

Switzerland XI: Sommer, E. Fernandes, Schar, Akanji, Rodriguez, Freuler, Xhaka, Shaqiri, Sow, Vargas, Embolo

Morocco are into the quarter-finals for the first time ever. They are only the fourth African team to reach that stage after Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010.

None of those three made it further in the competition. Can Morocco make history by reaching the semi-finals?

They’ll be facing either Portugal or Switzerland in the next round.

There is a huge amount to be said for organisation and defensive solidity. It can keep teams up, keep them in a title hunt, level the playing field across 90 minutes when the general gulf in class between teams is enormous.

Positional play, resilience, aggression and minimising spaces between both lines and playing partners have always been hallmarks of what makes for good defensive work.

Somewhere along the way though, it began to change. Attack as the best form of defence became a mantra for some – most notably those who didn’t have the aforementioned traditional traits – and then, with Spain in particular leading the charge, possession as a means of preventing the opposition being able to attack became a prevalent sight.

What a penalty shootout for Yassine Bounou. He stopped two penalties and forced another onto the post. His efforts helped Morocco into the lead before Achraf Hakimi finished it off with a Panenka spot kick.

Spain were eliminated from the Qatar World Cup by Morocco on penalties on Tuesday, with the underdogs reaching the quarter-finals after the last-16 tie finished 0-0 after extra time.

A clash with Portugal or Switzerland is up next, with those sides squaring off in the final last-16 fixture of the tournament.

Here’s how the players fared: