Day: January 2, 2019

Sporting Lisbon were surprisingly beaten by Victoria Guimaraes in their last league game and that has affected their position on the league table.

They are currently 5 points below league leaders, FC Porto and 1 behind second placed Benfica, so only a win for them in this game would be enough for them to keep the pace.

Apart from their shock 1-0 loss at Viktoria they have won 6 of their last 7 league games. Scoring goals has also not been a problem as they have at least 3 goals in 6 of their last 7 games in all competition.

Belenenses are also not having a particularly bad season at the moment. They are currently 6th in the Portuguese top flight table ahead of this game.

They have lost twice to FC Porto in their last six games, but they come into this game having not lost any of their last 8 league games.

They have the chance to move above Viktoria if they can win this game by two or more goals ahead of the pair facing each other on Sunday. That could be added incentive for the visitors to go all out for the win.

Desportivo Aves fell to a heavy defeat in their last league outing and that has pushed them further into relegation troubled waters.

They host the league leaders in this game and it doesn’t look like they would stand a chance of surviving some kind of beating here.

The host managed to hold Benfica to a 1-1 draw at the weekend in their Taca Da Liga game and they would be looking to build on that in this game, but Porto are a different and perhaps tougher opponent so this game would be a very hard one for them to even pick up a draw.

FC Porto did beat  Belenenses 2-1 in their own Taca Da Liga game to top their group and reach the next. They currently lead the Primera division after a shock defeat for Sporting gave them a 4 points lead, so they would be looking to win this game and keep their lead at the top of the table.

FC Porto have won all of their last 6 matches, while Aves have lost 3, drawn 2 and won 1 of their last 6 matches.