Portugal can seal top spot by thwarting Italy

Serbia v Montenegro
Sky Sports Football 2pm Saturday
Italy v Portugal
Sky Sports Football 7.45pm Saturday

Cristiano Ronaldo's absence from the Nations League hasn't stopped Portugal from dominating League A Group 3 and the Iberians can seal top spot by avoiding defeat against Italy at the San Siro.

Portugal are the only team in the section with two games left to play - they host Poland on Tuesday - but need just one point against Italy to put themselves in an unassailable position.

Players other than Ronaldo have come to the fore with Milan striker Andre Silva (currently on loan at Sevilla) scoring twice and Manchester City winger Bernardo Silva netting their third goal in last month's 3-2 success away to Poland.

Italy have been up against it since struggling in September when they drew 1-1 at home to Poland and lost 1-0 to Portugal in Lisbon.

The manner of their loss to the Portuguese was especially disappointing because they mustered just two shots on target and could easily have lost by a wider margin.

Italy stayed in contention last month thanks to Fiorentina left-back Cristiano Biraghi, who netted an injury-time goal in a 1-0 success away to Poland.

But it was just their second goal of the tournament (the other being a Jorginho penalty) and their lack of a goal threat counts against them.

The Azzurri have been searching for a reliable striker for many years but are no nearer to coming up with an answer and the top scorer in their squad is veteran defender Giorgio Chiellini with eight goals.

They look poor-value favourites to get the win and there is value is siding with Portugal to avoid defeat at odds-on.

Serbia are probably the strongest team in League C and can strengthen their grip on Group 4 by beating Montenegro in Belgrade.

The Serbs are battling it out with second-placed Montenegro and third-placed Romania for top spot but need two more wins to guarantee promotion.

However, they came through a much tougher group in World Cup qualifying, finishing ahead of Ireland, Wales and Austria, and are red-hot favourites to finish with a pair of home wins over Montenegro and Lithuania, their opponents on Tuesday.

Serbia are without influential injured midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic but have greater depth to their resources than Montenegro, who are hampered by injuries to defenders Stefan Savic and Filip Stojkovic, midfielder Nikola Vukcevic and striker Stefan Jovetic.

Without Jovetic, who has scored 24 goals in 51 internationals, there is little threat to the hosts, who should win the game and keep a clean sheet.

Recommendations
Portugal or draw double chance
1pt 7-10 Betway, BoyleSports
Serbia win to nil
1pt 13-12 188Bet

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