Black Stars Playbook: How Ghana can beat Ronaldo’s Portugal in Qatar - www.asempanews.com

But to understand where the Black Stars can flourish, there is the need to understand how Portugal play, and their approach can be divided into three basic segments; buildup, attack and defence.

Most often than not, when the extra man in midfield receives the ball, he looks to play out to the right where Portugal will have an advantage with the numbers

As a result, this leaves Portugal with a slight imbalance as the left-back is now responsible for width from the left

In the friendly with Nigeria, Portugal adopted a more expansive and balanced approach, and ended up scoring three of their four goals from the left-hand side – 2 directly and one indirectly via winning a penalty.

But deep into their half, they seem to play in a back line of 5 as the ball-sided winger drops to help out his fullback.

Portugal’s approach play with players dropping from their forward lines to link play, and their obsession with creating from wide means the Black Stars might need to start in a back 3.

Basically, these spaces Portugal tend to leave in between their lines, as well as the space their full backs create on either flank by stepping out of the defensive line, are windows of opportunity which if the Black Stars grab, can use to stun their Portuguese counterparts.