Our prediction for this Portugal Primeira Liga match:
Buoyed by back-to-back wins over Farense and Guimaraes, Porto will be aiming to put an extra pressure on league leaders Sporting CP when they take on Arouca at their Estadio do Dragao. New signing Samu Omorodion has already found his goal-scoring touch and we are positive that the 20-year-old is going to prove a handful for the opposition back-line. Both Fabio Vieira and Zaidu Sanusi are sidelined with injuries for the home side.
Os Lobos, on the other hand, aim to build on a hard-fought 1-0 win over Farense, but they will have a much bigger fish to fry against the title hopefuls. In their last meeting in the Portuguese top flight Arouca defeated Porto 3-2, meaning that the Portuguese giants are hungry for revenge. As Gonzalo Garcia’s men struggle in matches against top-table sides, we predict that the hosts are going to pick up all three points from the match. All Nino Galovic, Quaresma Correia, and Kouassi Eboue are injured for the visiting team.
Highlighted Player (Pepe):
Pepe is a professional footballer who plays for Porto as a defender. The Portuguese international played for Maritimo at the start of his senior career and in 2004 he moved to Porto. After making 64 league appearances for the Dragons, he signed a contract with Real Madrid in 2007 and he quickly established himself as a first-team regular.
Pepe is well known for his hard tackles and referees often show him red card. The Real Madrid centre back often played as a defensive midfielder under Jose Mourinho and it has to be noted that he scored five goals in all competitions in the 2013/2014 La Liga campaign.
The Portuguese footballer won his second Champions League trophy with Real Madrid in the 2015/2016 season and later in 2016 he helped A Selecao win the European Championship trophy. Portugal defeated France in the title game and Pepe played an important role in Fernando Santos’ team in the Euro 2016 final. The Real Madrid defender was born in Maceio, Brazil on 26 February, 1983.
Highlighted Team (Porto):
Futebol Clube do Porto are one of Portugal’s biggest football clubs playing their matches in front of 50,000 people at their Estadio do Dragao. Porto form biggest rivalries with two other Big Three clubs in Portugal and regular league title contenders – Benfica and Sporting CP. Rivalries between the clubs stem from the historical, political, economical and cultural discrepancies between the cities of Porto and Lisbon. The Dragons, as they are commonly known in Portugal, are the second most successful Portuguese team with a total of 74 trophies to their name.
Porto hold a record of five consecutive league titles which are part of the total tally of 27 Primeira Liga trophies. FC Porto’s success extends to the international scene as well with seven European titles. Two-time European champions from 1987 and 2004, Porto also won two UEFA Cup/Europa League titles, the UEFA Super Cup and the International Cup on two occasions. Together with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United, Porto have the most appearances in the UEFA Champions League group stage – the total of 20.