Santa Clara v FC Porto

Santa Clara vs Porto Preview

Both Santa Clara and Porto produced winning starts to their respective Portuguese Primeira Liga campaigns last week as Santa Clara registered a comprehensive 4-1 victory away from home at Estoril, while Porto also ran out comfortable winners in a 3-0 home win against Gil Vicente, which now brings us an early top of the table clash here on Friday night at the Estádio de São Miguel.

Having gained automatic promotion from the Portuguese Segunda Division at the end of last season, finishing two points clear of runners-up, Nacional, last week's landslide result away from home at Estoril was made that much more impressive for the upcoming hosts who will now face one of the strongest teams in the division on Friday night.

Nevertheless, Santa Clara are currently enjoying something of a purple patch in form as the hosts have won each of their last nine games on the trot in all competitions including wins on home soil at their Estádio de São Miguel over CF Os Belenenses, Uniao de Leira and Boavista, the latter being in a pre-season friendly.

However, Santa Clara manager, Vasco Matos, will be demanding more from this Santa Clara outfit who bowed out of the Portuguese top flight in dismal fashion last time they appeared in the domestic top flight after collecting just three wins in their final 22 matches, slipping to 16 defeats in the process.

Porto finished last season's Primeira Liga campaign in third spot but they found themselves eight points adrift of runners-up, Benfica, and an even more significant 18 points behind the title winners, Sporting Lisbon, so there is work ahead for the visitors if they are to close the gap on the top two teams this term.

Back-to-back defeats away at Estoril and at home to Vitoria Guimaraes at the end of March and early April put paid to Porto's chances of securing a place in this season's Champions League qualifiers and instead Porto have had to make do with a place in the Europa League despite finishing last season in strong fashion.

Porto finished last term with a flourish as the visitors put together a solid and impressive seven-game unbeaten sequence which consisted of five wins and two draws; victories over Casa Pia, Chaves, Boavista, Sporting Braga and Gil Vicente respectively will give Vitor Bruno's side plenty of confidence heading into this Friday night clash at the Estádio de São Miguel.

In addition, Porto have won their last three away games on the trot in the Portuguese top flight, while five of their last 10 outings on the road have also resulted in Under 2.5 goals.

Santa Clara v Porto Verdict

Six of Santa Clara's last 10 home games have resulted in Under 2.5 goals and another low-scoring game looks to be on the cards here with Porto coming out on top.

Therefore, our main bet will be Under 2.5 goals @ 2.15

Other side bets worth considering:

Porto win & Under 2.5 goals @ 4.00

Correct Score: Porto 2-0 @ 7.00