Ireland – Portugal Tip World Cup Qualifiers, Group F, Matchday 9, 13/11/2025 at 20:45 CET
Portugal will probably finally qualify for the 2026 World Cup on Thursday in Dublin, but has not always made life easy for itself in the World Cup qualifiers. In the first leg against Ireland and in Hungary, very late victories were recorded in each case, before it recently came to a 2-2 draw in the re-match against the Magyars.
At the Aviva Stadium, however, the home side in particular are under pressure, who need at least one point against the 2016 European champions in order not to fall out of the pool of potential World Cup drivers before the final appearance in Budapest.
Accordingly, I expect the hosts to play quite cheerfully on the 9th qualifying matchday. A consideration that then also resulted in my Ireland Portugal tip “both teams to score” submitted in one of the best sports betting apps.
Ireland vs. Portugal AI Predictions:
The artificial intelligence is also confident that there will not be a measurable revival in the penalty areas at the very last second on Thursday – unlike in the first leg.
The tip that over 2.5 goals will be scored, with odds of around 1.62, makes sense, especially in view of the recent performances of the guests. In 5 of the last 7 games, the Portuguese had even cracked the mark of 3.5 goals.
The fact that the AI also relies primarily on the Selecao can be seen in the tip “Win Portugal with handicap -1”. For the somewhat clearer away victory, bookmakers with Paysafecard also give back around 1.9 times the stake.
However, interested bettors must be careful not to turn the screw too far here. None of the five previous World Cup qualifying duels between the two teams has seen such a clear victory for the favourites.
Predicted chance of winning:
| Victory Ireland |
Draw |
Victory Portugal |
| 10.4% |
15% |
74.6% |
Cristiano Ronaldo’s predicted goal seems to me to be a little narrower, but also a bit more realistic – at values of around 1.70.
CR7 had missed a penalty in the first leg against the Irish, quite against his nature; even in the national dress, however, goals from the now 40-year-old can still be relied on.
With his brace in Hungary, he had not only made up for his miss, but also increased his goal tally in 52 World Cup qualifiers to a total of 41 goals (0.79 per game) – a world record!
What you need to consider when betting on Ireland vs. Portugal
- In the last 5 direct duels (competitive and friendly), the Irish have only managed a draw with 4 defeats.
- In the last three corresponding games, the Boys in Green have failed to score a goal; in none of the last eleven clashes did the team score more than a maximum of one goal.
- The Irish are unbeaten in 5 home internationals (W3 D2) and have scored at least once in each of those 5 games.
- After 6 wins in a row, the Portuguese had to settle for only one point for the first time in the most recent 2-2 draw at home against Hungary.
- With his brace against Hungary, Cristian Ronaldo has now taken sole place at the top of the all-time World Cup qualifying goalscorer list. In 52 games, CR7 scored 41 goals.
