Preview: Chaves vs. Arouca - prediction, team news, lineups

Fresh off the back of crashing out of the Taca de Portugal, Arouca take a trip to the Estadio Municipal Eng. Manuel Branco Teixeira to square off against Chaves in round 16 of the Primeira Liga on Sunday.

The Flavienses, on the other hand, head into the weekend without a win in any of their last five matches across all competitions and will be looking to end this dry spell.

Match preview

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Chaves failed to arrest their slump as they were forced to settle for a somewhat disappointing 1-1 draw against league strugglers Pacos de Ferreira last Sunday.

Following an uneventful first half at the Estadio Capital do Movel, Juninho Vieira struck seven minutes after the hour mark to put the visitors ahead, but Uilton Silva found the target in the 75th minute to force a share of the spoils.

Chaves are now winless in each of their last five matches across all competitions — losing three and claiming two draws — a run which saw them crash out of the Taca da Liga after finishing last in Group A.

Following a decent first half of the season, where they secured 20 points from 15 Primeira Liga matches, Vitor Campelos's men are currently 10th in the league standings, level on points with Rio Ave and Boavista.

While the Flavienses will be looking to return to winning ways, they have struggled to grind out results away from home, where they are currently on a three-game losing streak and have managed just one win in 10 straight games since July.

Arouca, on the other hand, were sent crashing out of the Taca de Portugal on Wednesday when they were thrashed 4-0 by Porto in their round-of-16 clash at the Estadio do Dragao.

Wenderson Galeno opened the scoring shortly after the half-hour mark to put the hosts on their way before Spanish forward Toni Martinez scored a second-half hat-trick to cap off a sensational individual performance.

Prior to that, the Arouquenses snapped their two-game losing streak in the Primeira Liga in their first outing of the new year when they edged out Estoril Praia 2-0 courtesy of goals in either half from Oday Dabbagh.

Arouca have now picked up six wins, four draws and lost five of their 15 league matches to collect 22 points and sit seventh in the table, five points off fifth-placed Casa Pia in the final Europa Conference League qualification spot.

Team News

Chaves will take to the pitch without the services of Eduardo Borges, who has been sidelined since picking up an injury against Casa Pia in November.

He is joined on the Flavienses' injury table by former Atletico Madrid forward Hector Hernandez, who has been ruled out until early February through a knee problem.

Meanwhile, Arouca remain without 22-year-old striker Vitinho, who has missed the last 12 matches after picking up a severe injury in October's game against Maritimo.

The Arouquenses recently confirmed the signing of American winger Benji Michel from Orlando City and the 25-year-old could make his debut this weekend.

Chaves possible starting lineup:

Fagundes; Correia, Monte, Vitoria, Langa; Mendes, Obiorah, Teixeira; Juninho, Abass, Singh

Arouca possible starting lineup:

Arruabarrena; Esgaio, Basso, Opoku, Correia; Ruiz, Soro, Simao; Antony, Dabbagh, Sylla

We say: Chaves 1-2 Arouca

With just two points separating Chaves and Arouca in the league table, we anticipate an end-to-end affair with both sides taking the game to each other. However, Arouca head into the weekend as the more in-form side and we predict that they will come away with a slender victory in this one.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.