Bosnia and Herzegovina vs. Portugal: Euro 2012 Playoff Team News, Preview

Portugal face Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday night, as the two teams enter into a two-legged playoff to decide which will qualify for next summer's Euro 2012 finals in Poland and Ukraine.

The first leg will be played Zenica, Bosnia, with the return match in Lisbon, Portugal, next Tuesday night.

Form guide

Portugal finished runners-up in Qualifying Group H, losing to Norway and group winners Denmark along the way.

Paulo Bento's team notably conceded four at home to Cyprus (4-4), and three at home to Iceland (Portugal won 5-3), so their defense is clearly vulnerable. That said, they did manage to score 22 times in their eight games, with Cristiano Ronaldo weighing in with five.

Bosnia were runners-up behind France in Group D, and would have gone through as winners if not for Samir Nasri's late equaliser for France in the showdown between the two teams in Paris.

They won four out of five of their home games in qualifying, and boast the attacking threat of Manchester City's Edin Dzeko.

Team news

Bosnia coach Safet Susic has recalled defender Sanel Jahic to his 23-man squad, as he looks to strengthen defensively. Susic should help cover for the suspended Sasa Papac and Boris Pandza, who both picked up costly yellow cards against France.

Portugal welcome back Danny, Hugo Almeida, Pepe and Fabio Coentrao. The quartet were all ruled out of Portugal's qualifiers against Iceland Denmark through injury, but has suitably recovered to be included in Bento's squad.

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"The return from injury of some important players gives us a wider range of options—but only that, nothing more," Bento told UEFA.com.

"I trust in every player I have, not just those, and also in the way we are working. There is always criticism, not only in defeat but also when we win. That's normal. We lost against Denmark and could not secure qualification, but since that day our thoughts have been on the games against Bosnia."

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Prediction

Portugal are favorites to advance, but I think they'd be happy to go away with a draw from the away leg. Bosnia is not an easy place to go and a hostile atmosphere will make it difficult for Portugal's flair players to express themselves.

I predict a 1-1 draw, with Portugal winning the return 3-1 to advance 4-2 on aggregate.