Portimonense vs Sporting Clube de Portugal
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Today’s free tip is in the Portuguese Liga 1 encounter between Portimonense and Sporting Clube de Portugal.
A trip to face Portimonense is always challenging. The home team are comfortable on the ball, good at creating chances, and play with a tremendous sense of belief. It’s weird how abjectly they tend to play on the road but their Brazilian contingent really enjoy showing what they’ve got when Portimonense are at home, and few Portuguese teams work harder in general than they do when one of the big three come to town.
Portimonense always seem to put in good displays at home against good teams too, most probably because they’re given space to play football in, which is something that lesser opponents are terrified of doing on the south coast. Teams like FC Porto, SL Benfica, and Sporting Clube de Portugal are expected to beat everyone in Portugal though, so they’ve got to attack the home team more – just how Portimonense like it. With room, this is a dangerous team to face, and Sporting Clube de Portugal know it with two defeats from their last three visits – and it took Bruno Fernandes magic for the sole exception to swing in their favour.
Last season, Portimonense were able to both counter-attack brilliantly and break teams down effortlessly; that’s why they had such a strong first few months of their campaign. A lot of players contributed to that run but to be fair, it was Japanese creator Nakajima that orchestrated most of it, which is why Portimonense struggled after he moved on to the Middle East mid-season, although ironically he’s now back in Portugal with FC Porto. At that point, Portimonense were expected to attack teams but couldn’t break them down well, and a defence like theirs will always ship goals. By that stage, most teams weren’t letting them counter-attack often things went to shit, to put it bluntly.
This season, though, I expect good things from Portimonense. People have been writing them off but they’ve done well in the transfer market. Indeed, they’ve managed to loan Colombian forward Moreno from Manchester City. Now, playing alongside fellow countryman Jackson Martinez, Portimonense actually have a very dangerous front two. I wouldn’t say they’ll be overly clinical but fusing the pace of Moreno with the power of Martinez is very, very dangerous, particularly given the speed all around them. That’ll show a lot more on the break, in my opinion, and thus should be visible against a superior Sporting Clube de Portugal today. As a side note, teams are getting bolder in this division so games are becoming more open and Portimonense should capitalise on that so I think they’ll have a good campaign.
Sporting Clube de Portugal are unquestionably better than Portimonense but are they capable of showing it today? Well, it’s possible but I wouldn’t put any money on it. As top-drawer as this Sporting Clube de Portugal attack is, it is constantly undermined by how atrocious their defence is. Nobody is really sure just how they managed to overcome Sporting Braga last time out, to be honest, other than via Bruno Fernandes showing why he is still too good for this level.
The best way to describe Sporting Clube de Portugal’s displays is to say that they’re ‘disjointed’. At no stage are they fully in control of any Liga 1 game. Their attack can score against any team in the country but their defence can concede against in the division. They look slow, ill-prepared, and without protection in the Sporting Clube de Portugal defence, and there’s a real lack of physicality in midfield, meaning teams can bully them. These weaknesses shouldn’t exist in such a big team but they do, and it’s been this way for a while now. Portimonense will have their opportunities, that’s for sure.
When it comes to that familiar silky passing football, though, Sporting Clube de Portugal are excellent. They move the ball around effortlessly in the final third. Indeed, all that lets them down a lto of the time is their finishing. As good as Bruno Fernandes unquestionably is, there’s no way in hell he should be their best finisher – but he is. Dost is a cracking target man but my understanding is that he won’t be playing for Sporting Clube de Portugal anymore. The rumour mill suggests that he’s off to Eintracht Frankfurt, and that transfer would make a lot of sense, but I’ve seen nothing official on it yet. Whilst it’s going on though, I doubt he’ll feature, which was the case against Sporting Braga. The rest of the Sporting Clube de Portugal attackers bring speed, trickery, and power but not finesse. Still, Portimonense give plenty of chances away, just like their opponents, so it’s hard to doubt Sporting Clube de Portugal scoring goals today.
Past encounters between these two attack-minded outfits have almost all contained goals. Five out of the last six meetings between the two in this division have easily gone over 2.5 goals, and I’d be really surprised if today’s game didn’t follow suit so over 2.5 goals is my main call. I can’t recommend that anybody get involved with picking a winner, however – anything is possible in a fixture like this – but I really like the odds on Fernandes scoring for the visitors as if anyone is going to, it’s likely to be him.
Verdict: Over 2.5 goals at 4/5.
Verdict 2: Fernandes to score at any time at 6/4.
Sunday’s Thoughts
As ever, if there are any explanations required then please feel free to post a comment! For the remainder of my thoughts on today’s games, see below, although I feel compelled to write that the below are not necessarily my tips but merely my thoughts. For confidence ratings, you’ll need to go to the members section here.
Austrian Bundesliga:
Sturm Graz vs Swarovski Tirol
Salzburg vs Admira Wacker
Hartberg vs Austria Vienna
Belgian Eerste Klasse:
Standard de Liege vs Kortrijk
Royal Excel Mouscron vs AS Eupen
Brazilian Serie A:
Santos vs Fortaleza
Vasco da Gama vs Sao Paulo
Goias vs Internacional
Ceara vs Flamengo
Avai vs Corinthians
CSA vs Cruzeiro
Bulgarian A PFG:
Dunav 2010 vs CSKA Sofia
Ludogorets Razgrad vs Slavia Sofia
Croatian Prva Liga:
Gorica vs Istra 1961
NK Osijek vs Hajduk Split
Czech Republic Liga 1:
Viktoria Plzen vs Opava
Mlada Boleslav vs Ceske Budejovice
Slovan Liberec vs Sparta Prague
Danish Superligaen:
Lyngby vs Randers
Esbjerg vs Silkeborg
SonderjyskE vs FC Midtjylland
Brondby vs AGF
FC Copenhagen vs FC Nordsjaelland
English Premier League:
Bournemouth vs Manchester City
Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Burnley
Tottenham Hotspur vs Newcastle United
Estonian Meistriliiga:
Flora Paide vs Maardu
Tulevik vs Tallinna Kalev
Faroese Meistaradeildin:
HB Torshavn vs Vikingur Gotu
AB vs B36 Torshavn
Skala vs NSI Runavik
EB/Streymur vs KI
IF vs TB
Finnish Veikkausliiga:
IFK Mariehamn vs SJK
RoPS vs FC Lahti
French Ligue 1:
AS Monaco vs Nimes Olympique
Racing Club Strasbourg vs Stade Rennais
Paris Saint-Germain vs Toulouse
German Bundesliga:
RB Leipzig vs Eintracht Frankfurt
Hertha Berlin vs VfL Wolfsburg
German Bundesliga 2:
Nurnberg vs Osnabruck
Heidenheim vs SV Sandhausen
Karlsruher SC vs Hamburger SV
Hungarian Liga 1:
Puskas FC vs Ferencvaros
Icelandic Pepsideild:
KA vs KR
Vikingur Reykjavik vs UMF Grindavik
FH vs Breidablik Kopavogur
Israeli Ligat Ha’al:
Hapoel Kfar Saba vs Hapoel Haifa
Bnei Yehuda Tel-Aviv vs Ironi Kiryat Shmona
Beitar Jerusalem vs Hapoel Be’er Sheva
Italian Serie A:
Udinese vs AC Milan
Cagliari vs Brescia
Hellas Verona vs Bologna
AS Roma vs Genoa
Sampdoria vs SS Lazio
SPAL vs Atalanta Bergamo
Torino vs Sassuolo
Italian Serie B:
Empoli vs Juve Stabia
Perugia vs Chievo Verona
Lithuanian A Lyga:
Palanga vs Atlantas Klaipeda
Dutch Eredivisie:
RKC Waalwijk vs ADO Den Haag
PEC Zwolle vs Sparta Rotterdam
FC Utrecht vs VVV Venlo
Norwegian Eliteserien:
Molde FK vs Odd
Brann Bergen vs Tromso
Haugesund vs Lillestrom
Kristiansund vs Mjondalen
Viking Stavanger vs Ranheim
Stromsgodset vs Sarpsborg 08
Portuguese Liga 1:
Maritimo Funchal vs Tondela
Santa Clara vs Belenenses
Portimonense vs Sporting Clube de Portugal
Gil Vicente vs Sporting Braga
Vitoria Guimaraes vs Famalicao
Portuguese Liga 2:
Farense vs FC Porto II
CD Nacional de Madeira vs Mafra
Casa Pia vs Estoril
Varzim vs Leixoes Matosinhos
Russian Premier League:
Krylya Sovetov Samara vs Spartak Moscow
CSKA Moscow vs Akhmat Grozny
FK Rostov vs Rubin Kazan
Arsenal Tula vs FK Orenburg
Spanish Primera Liga:
Deportivo Alaves vs RCD Espanyol
Real Mallorca vs Real Sociedad
Leganes CF vs Atletico Madrid
Barcelona CF vs Real Betis Balompie
Swedish Allsvenskan:
IFK Norrkoping vs Helsingborg
Ostersunds FK vsAIK Solna
AFC Eskilstuna vs BK Hacken Goteborg
Malmo FF vs Djurgarden
Swiss Super League:
FC Sion vs FC Luzern
St. Gallen vs Lugano
FC Thun vs Servette
Swiss Challenge League:
Chiasso vs Vaduz
Turkish Super Lig:
Rizespor vs Sivasspor
Trabzonspor vs Yeni Malatyaspor
Galatasaray vs Konyaspor
Antalyaspor vs Denizlispor
Enjoy your free betting tips!