Our prediction for this Taca de Portugal match:
A place in the Taca de Portugal quarter-finals will be at stake when Nacional and Porto face each other at Estadio da Madeira. The Dragons continue where they left in December, with the team extending their winning run to nine games in all competitions at the weekend. Porto have been scoring goals for fun of late, and they are likely to stick to their attacking style of play against Nacional.
Jorge Giordano’s troops failed to impress in a 2-0 defeat to Sporting, and we do not believe that they are capable of matching the high-flying Dragons. Even though the likes of Vieira, Ramos, Mbaye, Marcano, Manafa, and Carraca are all likely to miss the Taca de Portugal clash, we are tempted to put our money on the Primeira Liga champions. In their last meeting at Estadio da Madeira Porto crushed Nacional 4-0.
Highlighted Player (Riccardo Piscitelli ):
Born in Vimercate, Italy on October 10, 1993, Riccardo Piscitelli is a goalkeeper who plays for Nacional in Primeira Liga. Piscitelli started his youth career at Serie A giants Milan, but he was not given a chance to play for the senior team.
As a result, he was sent on loan to Carrarese where he made 23 appearances in the league. The Italian shot-stopper played for the likes of Benevento, Carpi, and Dinamo Bucuresti as well before joining Nacional in 2020. Riccardo Piscitelli has three caps with the Italy U20 team, but he has yet to make his debut with the senior team.
His preferred foot is left, and he has a contract with Nacional until July 24, 2020. The 189-cm-tall has yet to establish himself as a first-choice goalkeeper at Nacional as he has been in Daniel’s shadow. His preferred foot is left.
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.