Porto will be bidding to make it eight Primeira Liga victories in a row when they continue their 2021-22 campaign away to Portimonense on Friday night.
The Dragons are currently top of the table, level on points with second-placed Sporting Lisbon, while Portimonense have collected 20 points from their 12 matches to occupy sixth position.
Match preview
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Portimonense will be the underdogs on Friday night, but the home side will enter the contest full of confidence, having recorded victories in each of their last three matches, without conceding a single goal.
Indeed, Paulo Sergio's side have beaten Belenenses 2-0 and Famalicao 3-0 in their last two league matches, in addition to recording a 3-0 victory over Penafiel in the Taca de Portugal on November 19.
Portimonense have won six, drawn two and lost four of their 12 Primeira Liga matches this season, which has seen them collect 20 points to occupy sixth position in the table, one point off fifth-placed Estoril.
Sergio's team finished 14th in Portugal's top flight last season, just one point clear of 16th-placed Rio Ave, so it has been a very encouraging start to the 2021-22 campaign for the Portimao-based outfit.
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Porto, meanwhile, have been victorious in each of their last seven league matches, including a 2-1 home success over Vitoria Guimaraes last time out.
Sergio Conceicao's team have won 10 and drawn two of their 12 top-flight games this term to collect 32 points, level on points with second-placed Sporting Lisbon and one point clear of third-placed Benfica.
Porto were also victorious in the Taca de Portugal on November 20, recording a 5-1 win over Feirense, but they suffered a 2-0 loss at Liverpool in the Champions League towards the end of last month.
The Blue and Whites have picked up five points from their five Group B matches this season to sit second in the section, one point clear of both third-placed AC Milan and fourth-placed Atletico Madrid ahead of a huge game at home to La Liga champions Atletico on December 7.
Porto have won Portugal's top flight on 29 occasions, including in 2019-20, but they finished second last season, five points behind the champions Sporting Lisbon.
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Team News
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Portimonense are sweating on the fitness of Lucas Fernandes for Friday's contest with the league leaders, while Shoya Nakajima will definitely be unavailable for selection.
There are not expected to be many surprises in the home side's starting XI here, with Fabricio set to lead the attack once again, while Carlinhos and Pedro Sa should again line up in midfield.
As for Porto, Ivan Marcano and Francisco Conceicao are unavailable for selection through injury, while Pepe remains a fitness doubt for the visitors.
Pepe is expected to be cleared in time to feature, but the experienced centre-back could be saved for his team's crucial Champions League contest against Atletico.
Evanilson and Mehdi Taremi have scored 10 league goals between them this season and will continue in the final third, while Luis Diaz, who has 10 league goals by himself this term, will again feature.
Portimonense possible starting lineup:
Samuel; Moufi, Pedrao, Willyan, Cande; Fernandes, Carlinhos, Sa; Morte, Aponza, Fabricio
Porto possible starting lineup:
Costa; Mario, Cardoso, Mbemba, Sanusi; Corona, Vitinha, Uribe, Diaz; Taremi, Evanilson
We say: Portimonense 0-2 Porto
Portimonense should enter this match in good confidence due to their recent form, but it is very difficult to back against Porto considering their league results of late. Conceicao's team have so much quality in the final third, and we are expecting them to pick up another three points in this clash.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Porto win with a probability of 54.16%. A draw had a probability of 24.7% and a win for Portimonense had a probability of 21.1%.
The most likely scoreline for a Porto win was 0-1 with a probability of 12.83%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-2 (10.43%) and 1-2 (9.53%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.71%), while for a Portimonense win it was 1-0 (7.2%). The actual scoreline of 0-3 was predicted with a 5.7% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Porto would win this match.
