Primeira Liga: What’s the state of play as Portuguese top-flight football returns?
Published:
Odds and preview of Wednesday and Thursday’s games
After a break of almost two months, Portugal’s Primeira Liga resumes again with two games tonight, then another five tomorrow.
With ten games left to play, there’s still plenty at stake throughout the division. Ahead of this week’s fixtures, we’ve looked at how the title race, the battle for European spots and the fight against relegation are all shaping up.
Title race
Benfica have dominated the Primeira Liga in recent years, finishing as champions in five of the last six seasons. Porto were the only side to break their stranglehold on the trophy during that time. They’re hoping to do so again this term – the Dragões are currently a point ahead of their rivals.
Sergio Conceicao’s side take on Famalicao at 21:15 tonight. We’ve got them as clear 4/9 favourites to restart with a win. Famalicao have only won one of their last 10 games in all competitions. We go 13/10 that Porto lead at half-time and full-time.
Benfica host 14th-placed Tondela tomorrow as 2/11 favourites. As Águias have won 1-0 in the last two meetings between these sides. It’s 6/1 for the 1-0 threepeat.
European spots
While Porto and Benfica are likely to take the two Champions League spots, there are still three Europa League places up for grabs.
They’re currently occupied by Braga in third (46 points), Sporting CP in fourth (42 points) and Rio Ave in fifth (38 points). Guimaraes and Famalicao are both sitting on 37 points. They’ll be hoping a decent run of form secures European football.
Tomorrow night sees Guimaraes host Sporting in a crucial clash. A Guimaraes win (7/5) would see them move to within two points of Ruben Amorim’s side. But victory for Sporting (9/5) would allow the visitors to open up an eight-point gap between the two sides.
Braga (4/7) face Santa Clara (5/1) on Friday, with Rio Ave (8/13) travelling to struggling Pacos de Ferreira (17/4) on Sunday.
Relegation battle
Portimonense and Desportivo Aves have been cut adrift at the bottom of the table. Sitting in 17th, Portimonense are six points behind Paco de Ferreira. Aves are three points further back at the bottom of the table.
Both sides will need to be much better in the coming weeks if they’re going to stay up. With that in mind, the break may work in their favour. Form isn’t so much of an issue when no one has played recently.
Our odds suggest Portimonense could start to turn things around tonight. They’re 5/4 to beat Gil Vicente (11/5), with 2/1 about the draw. They’ve only scored 16 goals this season though, the lowest total in the league – Under 1.5 Goals is a 17/10 shot.
Aves (19/10) will hope for a repeat of last season’s home win over Belenenses (31/20) when they meet on Friday.
All odds and markets correct as of date of publication
