Two teams who could certainly do with three points face off in round 29 of the 2022-23 Primeira Liga season as Vitoria de Guimaraes welcome Sporting Lisbon to Estadio Dom Afonso Henriques on Monday.
The hosts are currently on a run of five matches without a win, while their visitors boast just one victory in their last five matches across all competitions.
Match preview
© Reuters
Sporting were dumped out of the Europa League by Juventus as they failed to overturn a first-leg deficit in a 1-1 second-leg draw at the Estadio Jose Alvalade on Thursday.
Ruben Amorim's men fell behind to Adrien Rabiot's early opener before drawing themselves level from the penalty spot through Marcus Edwards in the 20th minute.
Prior to that, Los Verde e brancos played out a 1-1 stalemate against Arouca, which saw them remain fourth in the Primeira Liga table and fall further behind Benfica in the title race.
Coming up next is the challenge of an opposing outfit who have been beaten in each of the most recent five editions of this fixture and are winless in the last eight clashes.
Having recently suffered a first away defeat in 10 matches, Monday's visitors will be keen to avoid consecutive losses on the road for the first time since October.
© Reuters
Vitoria de Guimaraes were beaten for the fourth time in five outings with a 2-1 defeat against Famalicao at Estadio Municipal de Famalicao on Friday evening.
Moreno's men conceded the opening goal of the contest to Jhonder Cadiz but managed to restore parity through Daniel Silva, after which Francisco Moura grabbed the winner 20 minutes from time.
As a result, Os Vimaranenses have dropped down to seventh place in the standings, four points adrift of Arouca in the race for the final Conference League playoff spot.
Currently with the third-best home defensive record in the entire division, Monday's hosts will back themselves to keep things tight at the back en route to another positive result in front of their fans.
Team News
© Reuters
Bruno Varela is unavailable for Vitoria with a long-term muscle injury, while Jose Carlos remains without an appearance in 2023 due to a foot problem.
The home side will also be without the services of Tiago Silva through suspension, but Ibrahima Bamba is eligible to feature once again having completed a one-game ban last time out.
Sporting's Daniel Braganca still awaits his first outing this term as the midfielder continues to battle with a knee injury which he picked up over a year ago.
Paulinho and Jovane Cabral also miss out of Monday's contest, although the former is drawing increasingly closer to returning to action from a knock.
With 14 goals and nine assists to his name so far, no player in the top tier of Portuguese football has racked up more direct goal contributions than Pedro Goncalves, who will be looking to deliver the goods once again.
Vitoria de Guimaraes possible starting lineup:
Biai; De Freitas, Manu, Tounkara, Miguel; Silva, Andre, Janvier; Jota, Pelegrini, Lameiras
Sporting Lisbon possible starting lineup:
Adan; Matheus, Coates, Diomande; Bellerin, Ugarte, Morita, Santos; Edwards, Trincao, Goncalves
We say: Vitoria de Guimaraes 1-3 Sporting Lisbon
Sporting have found wins hard to come by of late, but they will fancy their chances of seeing off the threat of an out-of-sorts Vitoria side. We are backing the away side to emerge triumphant in a relatively comfortable manner come the end of the 90 minutes.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Adepoju Marvellous
