Arouca and Vitoria de Guimaraes get Sunday's Primeira Liga fixtures underway when they go head to head at the Estadio Municipal de Arouca.
Joao Teixeira's men head into the weekend on a run of seven consecutive games without an away defeat against the Arouquenses and will look to continue in the same vein.
Match preview
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Arouca failed to find their feet in the Primeira Liga as they fell to a 2-1 home defeat at the hands of Boavista when the sides squared off last Sunday.
In a game where Ismaila Soro and Jerome Opoku both picked up red cards, Vincent Sasso and Martim Tavares found the target to cancel out Rafa Mujica's 27th-minute opener and hand Os Axadrezados their fourth win of the season.
Armando Evangelista's side have now failed to win any of their most recent three outings, picking up one draw and losing twice, including a humiliating 6-0 defeat against high-flying Braga on August 28.
With two wins and one draw from their opening six games, Arouca have picked up seven points from a possible 18 to sit 12th in the Primeira Liga standings, two points and three places off Sunday's visitors.
While the Arouquenses will be looking to arrest their slump, next up is the stern challenge of taking on a Vitoria de Guimaraes side who are unbeaten in 11 of the last 13 meetings between the sides, claiming eight wins and three draws.
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Sunday's visitors, on the other hand, returned to winning ways last time out when they saw off Santa Clara 1-0 at the Estadio Dom Afonso Henriques.
Brazilian forward Anderson Silva came up clutch for the home side as he netted the only goal of the game to hand Mario Silva's men their fourth defeat of the season.
Prior to that, Os Vimaranenses kicked off their 2022-23 campaign with a narrow 1-0 victory over Estoril Praia in August's league opener before losing each of their subsequent three outings.
Vitoria de Guimaraes, who secured a sixth-placed finish last term, head into the weekend on a run of just one win from their last five away games in the league, picking up two draws and losing twice since April.
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Team News
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Arouca will head into the weekend without Soro and Opoku after both players picked up straight red cards in the game against Boavista last time out.
On the injury front, the attacking duo of Oday Dabbagh and Croatian midfielder Nino Galovic continue their spells on the sidelines and will play no part in this weekend's game.
Veteran defender Sema Velazquez is also out of contention for the Arouquenses as he continues his long road to full recovery after picking up an ACL injury last year.
Meanwhile, Vitoria de Guimaraes will take to the pitch without several key players down the spine of the team as the likes of Tomas Handel, Miguel Maga and Jorge Fernandes have all been ruled out through injury.
Andre Silva has missed the last four games after coming off injured against Estoril Praia on August 14, while Bruno Gaspar is currently recuperating from a knee injury.
Silva opened his account in the league with his winner last weekend and the Brazilian should spearhead the visitors' attack once again, alongside Ruben Lameiras and Nelson Luz.
Arouca possible starting lineup:
Arruabarrena; Milovanov, Basso, Opoku, Esgaio; Soro, Busquets, Ruiz; Nunes, Bukia, Mujica
Vitoria de Guimaraes possible starting lineup:
Varela; Freitas, Fernandes, Amaro, Ogawa; Andre, Bamba; Carlos; Lameiras, Luz, Silva
We say: Arouca 1-1 Vitoria de Guimaraes
With just two points separating the sides in the league table, we anticipate a cagey affair at the Estadio Municipal de Arouca this weekend. Arouca and Vitoria de Guimaraes are evenly matched on paper and we predict that they will both take a cautious approach to the game and force a share of the spoils.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Joshua Ojele
