Casa Pia take on the visitors Sporting Lisbon in the round 1 match of Liga Portugal. The match will be played on Friday, August 8th at Estádio Municipal de Rio Maior (Rio Maior).
Casa Pia” were founded back in 1920 and immediately won both the Lisbon championship and the Lisbon Cup. However, before World War II they were relegated from the top division. Only in the 2022/23 season did they manage to secure the right to play in the Primeira Liga again. Since then, they have been collecting enough points to stay at this level, even without any particularly bright achievements. That was also the case in the last campaign: 12 wins and 45 points were enough to finish 9th in the final standings. After that, their promising defender, Ruben Kluivert, was sold to Lyon, with the club in no hurry to spend the money received from the French on new signings — they traditionally prefer to sign free agents. This season, their form has been inconsistent, with a tendency to struggle against teams from the league’s upper half. Their lack of attacking efficiency has been evident, scoring in just one of their last three league games.
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Sporting (Lisbon) will aim to maintain their status as the undisputed leaders. The “Green-and-Whites” under their previous coach, Rúben Amorim, managed to reclaim their dominance. Of course, the rather unexpected departure of the manager last autumn to Manchester United had an impact. As a result, Benfica finally beat their neighbours — in the League Cup final, via penalties. But the situation was later stabilised. In the spring, Sporting managed to overtake the “Eagles” in the Primeira Liga title race and then added a domestic cup triumph, defeating Trubin and company 3-1 in the final. After the break, the season began with the Super Cup, where they lost to the same “Red-and-Whites” without replying to a single goal. Moreover, their top scorer of the past two seasons, Viktor Gyökeres, was no longer in the squad — the striker had refused to play and eventually forced a move to Arsenal. Even without Gyökeres, Sporting have shown their class, winning convincingly in their first league match. Their defence remains one of the most solid in Portugal, conceding just once in their last four league games.
There have been a total of seven matches between the neighbours — in the cup in 2021 and in the Primeira Liga since 2022. And every single encounter has been won by the capital giants. The visitors are much stronger and will be eager to bounce back from their Super Cup setback — they should win here with a -1.5 goal handicap.
Prediction for the match: Sporting to win with -1.5 handicap.
