Fresh off the back of an impressive victory over league leaders Porto, Braga take a trip to the Estadio do Restelo to face Belenenses in round 32 of the Primeira Liga on Saturday.
O Belem, on the other hand, will head into the game aiming to pick up a third straight victory on home turf for the first time this season and move out of the drop zone.
Match preview
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Belenenses kept their hopes of beating the drop alive last Sunday when they overturned a two-goal first-half deficit to salvage a 2-2 draw with Estoril Praia at the Estadio Antonio Coimbra da Mota.
Rosier Loreintz and Andre Franco put the hosts in a two-goal lead heading into the interval, but Safira pulled one back with his 66th-minute penalty before Sandro levelled matters with a dramatic 97th-minute equaliser.
Belenenses are now unbeaten in all but one of their last seven games — claiming two wins and four draws — with a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Benfica on April 9 being the only exception.
With 25 points from 31 games, Franclim Carvalho's men are currently rooted to the bottom of the Primeira Liga standings, two points adrift of 15th-placed Arouca just outside the relegation zone.
While victory on Saturday could see them move out of the drop zone, standing in their way is an opposing side who are unbeaten in 16 of the last 20 meetings between the teams since 2019, claiming 13 wins and three draws in that time.
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Braga, on the other hand, became the first side to beat Porto this season, while also ending the Dragoes' 58-game unbeaten run in the Primeira Liga as they claimed a hard-earned 1-0 victory when the sides met on Monday.
Despite seeing just 36 percent of the ball possession, a 54th-minute strike from 27-year-old forward Ricardo Horta proved to be the decider as Os Arcebispos held on to see out the win and crash the league leaders' planned league title celebrations.
Carlos Carvalhal's side are now unbeaten in each of their last five league outings, picking up 13 points from a possible 15, while losing just once in their last 10 since a 2-1 loss at Vitoria de Guimaraes on February 5 being the only exception.
Despite Monday's victory, Braga will have to settle for a Conference League qualification finish, having picked up 59 points from their 31 games this season to sit fourth in the standings, nine points off third-placed Sporting Lisbon, who boast a significantly superior goal difference.
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Team News
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Belenenses will have to make do with the absence of Diogo Calila and Abel Camara, who both picked up straight reds for violent conduct in the heated game against Famalicao last time out.
On the injury front, Carvalho will be unable to call upon 21-year-old forward Alioune Ndour, who is set to sit out his eighth straight game after picking up an injury versus Pacos de Ferreira back in April.
Brazilian midfielder Sandro opened his account for Belenenses with his late leveller against the Vila Nova last Saturday and the 33-year-old could be rewarded with a place in the starting XI this weekend.
Meanwhile, Braga will be without the experience of defender Nuno Sequeira after the 31-year-old sustained a severe knee injury last November.
He is joined on the Os Arcebispo injury table by fellow Portuguese international Roger Fernandes, who has been out of action since February's Europa League clash with Sheriff Tiraspol through a muscle problem.
Belenenses possible starting lineup:
Felipe; Carraca, Danny, Phete, Tavares; Sousa, Sithole; Braima, Camacho, Baraye; Safira
Braga possible starting lineup:
Matheus; Couto, Tormena, Carmo, Tormena; Castro, Al Musrati, A Horta, Gomes; R Horta, Ruiz
We say: Belenenses 1-2 Braga
Fresh off the back of a resilient display at Famalicao, Belenenses will head into Saturday's game with renewed confidence as they look to steer clear of the relegation zone. However, next up is an opposing side who are unbeaten in 16 of the last 20 meetings between the sides. While we expect O Belem to take a cautious approach to the game, we are tipping Braga to come away with all three points in this one.
Top tip
Joshua Ojele
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 Braga win with a probability of 56.81%. A draw had a probability of 24.7% and a win for Belenenses had a probability of 18.5%.
The most likely scoreline for a Braga win was 0-1 with a probability of 14.29%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-2 (11.6%) and 1-2 (9.36%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.52%), while for a Belenenses win it was 1-0 (7.1%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with a 14.3% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 0-1 win for Braga in this match and our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted the win for Braga.
