On Saturday, Benfica will welcome Moreirense to Estadio da Luz, with both teams looking to claim consecutive victories.
The hosts head into the weekend in third position, seven points behind the league leaders, while the visitors are embroiled in a relegation battle.
Match preview
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At the halfway mark of the Primeira Liga season, Benfica find themselves in a fight to win their 38th league title as they sit seven points adrift of Porto, while they are four points behind second-placed Sporting Lisbon.
The new year started on a positive note, as Benfica claimed a 2-0 home victory over Pacos Ferreira last weekend thanks to a goal apiece from Joao Mario and Alejandro Grimaldo.
That result represented Nelson Verissimo's first win in his latest stint as caretaker boss, and the interim boss will be hoping that his team can start the new year with consecutive victories.
In fact, Benfica enter Saturday's contest in imperious home form after winning their last four games at the Estadio da Luz in all competitions, scoring 14 goals in that period while only conceding once.
Having scored more home goals than any other side in the Primeira Liga, Saturday's hosts will be confident of claiming all three points against Moreirense.
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As for the visitors, they are currently level on points with Famalicao who are located in the relegation playoff place, while they are also only a point clear of the drop zone.
Os verdes e brancos gave their survival chances a boost last weekend as they edged out Vizela to claim their second victory in three games.
In that contest, a 59th-minute strike from Rafael Martins proved enough to help Ricardo Sa Pinto's side claim a 1-0 victory, which represented their first league win on the road this season.
Although, achieving consecutive away victories will be a difficult task as Moreirense have failed to beat Benfica in their last six competitive meetings.
Five defeats in their last six away games will only add to the visitors's pessimism ahead of the weekend, although if the away side are to cause Benfica problems, the threat is likely to come late into the encounter as Moreirense have scored four of their six away league goals in the final 15 minutes of games this season.
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Team News
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Benfica have welcomed back a number of players with Soualiho Meite, Odisseas Vlachodimos, Pizzi, Roman Yaremchuk, and Jan Vertonghen all available after recovering from coronavirus and serving their respective isolation periods.
Although, the hosts will be without Rodrigo Pinho, Lucas Verissimo, and Nemanja Radonjic, who are unavailable due to injury issues.
Andre Almeida is expected to return to the starting lineup after being suspended for last weekend's contest.
Meanwhile, the visitors are without Sori Mane, who is currently at the Africa Cup of Nations with Bissau-Guinea.
Following their victory last weekend, Sa Pinto could name an unchanged lineup.
Martins will continue to lead the line, and will be aiming to score for a fourth consecutive game.
Benfica possible starting lineup:
Vlachodimos; Gilberto, Otamendi, Vertonghen, Almeida; Silva, Mario, Weigl, Everton; Ramos, Yaremchuk
Moreirense possible starting lineup:
Kewin; Santos, Vitoria, Jorge; Paulinho, Pacheco, Soares, Conte; Yan, Silva, Martins
We say: Benfica 3-1 Moreirense
Benfica claimed a narrow victory against Moreirense in August, and with home advantage on Saturday, we think that they will have a slightly more comfortable afternoon as they bid to remain in touch with the league leaders.
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 Benfica win with a probability of 77.7%. A draw had a probability of 14.4% and a win for Moreirense had a probability of 7.94%.
The most likely scoreline for a Benfica win was 2-0 with a probability of 12.46%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 3-0 (10.71%) and 1-0 (9.66%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (6.82%), while for a Moreirense win it was 0-1 (2.64%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with a 6.8% likelihood.
