What is it about these Portuguese loving to live on the edge in their qualifying campaigns? In the WC 2010 group stage they left it till late to clinch the 2nd spot and get into the play-offs. Now they’ve put themselves in a situation most likely to keep them playing catch up for the rest of the campaign, after allowing Cyprus to score FOUR goals to earn a draw in Lisbon.

We usually brand Ronaldo’s mates as the team most capable of throwing away good scoring opportunities, but that was not the case on Friday. Instead they became the team most capable of conceding from nowhere.

Norway did it the hard way but still got 3 points from Iceland to get them going. Now they’ve even got John Carew back in contention, and all looks pretty good for them. Denmark though are to benefit from any slip ups, and -once again- it’s probably going to be at the expense of Portugal.

Even more trouble for the Portuguese defense as Coentrao appears to be out injured. Still no Ronaldo either. We can only see one winner here. Norway to win. Major odds too.