Sporting Clube de Portugal vs Aberdeen
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Today’s featured game is the UEFA Europa League encounter in Portugal between Sporting Clube de Portugal and Aberdeen of Scotland.
The home team are naturally favourites here. You’re a braver man than I am if you trust this Sporting Clube de Portugal side however, who have been pretty poor for quite some time now. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when they lost Bruno Fernandes to Manchester United. He’s done a very good job in England thus far, but whilst he was in Portugal, he quite literally carried his team in every single match. He’s the only one with any degree of composure in the final third for the Lisbon juggernauts, and he was the only one they had that could be consistently trusted to carve open a defence. Without him, Sporting Clube de Portugal look more impotent than ever, especially so against teams that park the bus against them.
Bearing in mind that Sporting Clube de Portugal are yet to kick a ball this season, thus making it very likely that they’ll have plenty of rusty legs in their team, and that they’ve still got a very average squad, I’m struggling to get on board with how heavily the bookies fancy them. I agree with the notion that, if they take the lead, they should win it. They’ve got better players than Aberdeen; you all know that. I also think that the Scots being forced out of their defensive shall would open them up far too much, and even Sporting Clube de Portugal’s impatient, rash forwards can be fast and skilful when afforded the space to do so.
My opinion is that Aberdeen will be annoying to break down, though. Partially because that’s the only realistic way they stand a chance of causing an upset here, and partially because Sporting Clube de Portugal simply don’t have the quality that they once had. The only player that Sporting Clube de Portugal had that showed a bit of composure here and there was Acuna, but the Argentinian has now joined Sevilla CF. All across their attack, I see the same thing – lots of energy, lots of skill, very little experience or composure. Therefore, they’re going to need a lot of luck to get an opener here.
Aberdeen got humped by Motherwell at weekend, but considering that they rotated a lot of their squad (both pre-game and mid-game), it can hardly be considered a surprise as they were preparing for tonight’s UEFA Europa League tie instead. The Scots obviously smell blood, and why the hell not? This really isn’t a good team that they’re facing. A superior team, yes, but I’ve seen many better Sporting Clube de Portugal teams than this. Having seen first-hand what plucky, well-organised teams can do in such games when Coleraine of Northern Ireland overcame Maribor in Slovenia, I don’t see why Aberdeen should fear this game.
They will need to be disciplined, though – that’s for sure. Organisation is paramount to their success tonight. If they don’t have that, they can kiss their hopes (and ours) goodbye. Based on what I’ve seen though, experienced boss McInnes (who has been at the helm for seven years now) will have them raring to go here. They’ve looked very organised this season, and they’ve got some competitive games under their belts now, unlike their hosts. A lot favours the visitors here, considering how big they’re priced as underdogs. I’m not bold enough to back the visitors to progress here, I’m afraid, but let’s just say that I recognise the potential of it with the right circumstances.
I just hope that Aberdeen don’t get too carried away with how average Sporting Clube de Portugal tend to be nowadays. If they actually start having a go at trying to win this one, they’ll simply get caught on the break, and then it’s lights out for them. Sporting Clube de Portugal are complete bottlers nowadays; I wouldn’t trust them to hold a lead against most good teams. With all due respect to Aberdeen though, they’re not what I class as a team as being trustworthy enough to punish their hosts for the mistakes that they’ll almost certainly make here. As long as Aberdeen retain the usual Scottish approach to European football, I think they could bust a few coupons here.
The 1×2 market does nothing for me though, as an early goal for the hosts would most likely swing this game in a complete opposite direction. Instead, I’m going to back under 3 goals at 4/5, and hope that Aberdeen ride the first twenty minutes without doing anything stupid. If nothing else, I hope you’ll take away from this preview that Sporting Clube de Portugal are not a team to be backed anymore; they’re a team to be opposed, whether they win this game 10-0 or not.
Verdict: Under 3 goals at 4/5.
Thursday’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.
UEFA Super Cup:
Bayern Munich vs Sevilla CF
UEFA Europa League:
FCSB vs Slovan Liberec
Mura vs PSV Eindhoven
Sporting Charleroi vs Partizan Belgrade
Fehervar vs Stade de Reims
St. Gallen vs AEK Athens
Shkendija ’79 vs Tottenham Hotspur
Willem II vs Rangers
Malmo FF vs Lokomotiva Zagreb
Rosenborg BK vs Alanyaspor
Granada CF vs Lokomotiv Tbilisi
LASK vs DAC Dunajska Streda
Standard de Liege vs Vojvodina Novi Sad
Sporting Clube de Portugal vs Aberdeen
VfL Wolfsburg vs Desna
Rijeka vs Kovas Kovalivka
AC Milan vs Bodo/Glimt
FK Rostov vs Maccabi Haifa
Besiktas JK vs Rio Ave
Galatasaray vs Hajduk Split
Hapoel Be’er Sheva vs Motherwell
Viktoria Plzen vs SonderjyskE
FC Copenhagen vs Piast Gliwice
APOEL Nicosia vs Zrinjski Mostar
FC Basel vs Anorthosis Famagusta
CSKA Sofia vs B36 Torshavn
Ararat-Armenia vs Celje
Sheriff Tiraspol vs Dundalk
FK Sarajevo vs Buducnost Podgorica
FK Riga vs Celtic
KuPS vs Suduva Marijampole
Legia Warsaw vs Drita
KI vs Dinamo Tbilisi
Djurgarden vs CFR Cluj
Floriana vs Flora Tallinn
English League Cup:
Bristol City vs Aston Villa
Lincoln City vs Liverpool
Manchester City vs Bournemouth
Finnish Veikkausliiga:
HJK vs TPS
Icelandic Urvalsdeild:
KA vs HK
FH vs Valur Reykjavik
Fjolnir Reykjavik vs IA
Grotta vs KR
Breidablik Kopavogur vs Stjarnan Gardabaer
Fylkir Reykjavik vs Vikingur Reykjavik
Portuguese Liga 2:
Academico Viseu vs Estoril
Enjoy your free betting tips!