Benfica take on the visitors Porto in the round 7 match of Liga Portugal. The match will be played on Friday, September 29th at Estádio da Luz (Lisbon).
This season, the Eagles seem to be struggling a bit, even though they are in the top three of the Primeira Liga. However, compared to the previous season, they haven't displayed complete dominance over their competitors. Furthermore, they have already suffered their first defeat to Boavista in Porto, losing 2-3 while being a man down. In the Champions League, discipline also let Schmidt's team down with an early red card for Antonio Silva and a 0-2 loss at home to Salzburg. The loan of Ramos to PSG, the sale of Vlachodimos to Nottingham, and the arrivals of Di Maria, Kekchu, and Yurasic, as well as Juan Bernat, have had a significant impact on the restructuring of Lisbon's gameplay. In the league, everything seems a bit fragile at the moment, and even the 3-1 win against Portimonense away was challenging. In my view, the Eagles are not stronger than the Dragons right now.
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Porto are playing for victory by a one-goal margin in the new season in the league. Yes, they dropped points at home against Aroka (1-1), but they haven't deviated from this trend. They secured a 2-1 victory against Gil Vicente in the last round. Conceicao's team hasn't changed much, managing to keep their core players intact, even the forty-year-old Pepe is still in action. So, the vice-champions are fully capable of challenging the Eagles this season. Especially in the Champions League, the blue and whites had a better start, defeating Shakhtar Donetsk 3-1 in Wroclaw, showing a different trend from the domestic league.
The Portuguese Clasico kicks off another round in the Primeira Liga on Friday evening. In this forecast, I would like to focus on the visitors, who currently appear to be as good as, if not more stable than, the Eagles. Yes, the Dragons lost to them in the Super Cup in Aveiro at the very beginning of the season, 0-2. Nevertheless, they didn't perform worse, and if we consider their recent game in Lisbon, the blue and whites won convincingly, 2-1. Now, with Benfica going through a roster overhaul and facing the challenge of retaining the team's stability after the sale of key players, the visitors haven't suffered such losses in their lineup this year. We believe that the second-placed team in the league can certainly stop the defending champions.
Prediction for the match: Porto not to lose (X2).
