On Monday night, Porto face a potentially tricky trip to the Estadio Municipal de Arouca to face Arouca in the Primeira Liga.
Arouca is in promising formThe home side has built up some positive momentum of late in the Portuguese top flight, having recorded three straight Liga wins over Estoril, Vizela and Portimonense.
Arouca has also been impressive in front of goal in those victories, scoring at least two goals in all three straight wins.
The victories moved Daniel Sousa’s team up to eighth place, seven points clear of the league's bottom three.
Their recent Primeira Liga games have certainly delivered on goals, as the last nine matches in the Portuguese top-flight all produced over 2.5 goals.
Although Arouca has won two of their last three home games in the Primeira Liga, they are their only home wins in nine outings in the top-flight.
Porto are still outsiders for the titleThe visitors are currently in third place in the Primeira Liga table, six points adrift of league leaders Benfica in the race for the title. The current gap makes Sergio Conceicao’s team outsiders to be crowned Portuguese champions.
Their recent Liga form has been strong, as they are unbeaten in six games in the Primeira Liga, having recorded four wins and two draws. However, a goalless home draw against Rio Ave was slightly underwhelming and frustrating.
The game did bring positive for Porto, though in the fact that they kept their third clean sheet in four matches in the Primeira Liga.
Porto’s recent away form has been slightly inconsistent, but they have won four of their previous six matches on their travels in the Portuguese top flight while also scoring at least two goals in four of the six matches.
What am I backing?Arouca have been in decent form, but their opponents haven’t exactly been the toughest in the world. Porto are in decent form, so I am backing the away win.
