This Sunday, January 19, 2014, FC Porto will take on Vitória FC at the Estádio do Dragão on the round 16 of Liga Zon Sagres. After the harsh away defeat against SL Benfica last Sunday, the Dragons are forced to win this weekend’s match in order to keep their aspirations of revalidating the league title intact.
FC Porto dropped to the third place of the table and they are now three points behind the league leaders’ SL Benfica, and one point behind Sporting CP. As for Vitória FC, this will probably be one of the most complicated matches of the season. The Setúbal team comes from a poor run of results with three consecutive league defeats at the hands of SC Braga, SL Benfica and SC Olhanense and this match against the current Portuguese champions is probably not the most appropriate fixture to turn their luck around.
Paulo Fonseca’s side has been far from impressive so far this season and FC Porto supporters are starting to lose their patience with the team and with the new manager. After the unconvincing performance against SL Benfica, the Dragons managed to put a pleasant display in the middle of the week against second tier FC Penafiel on a Portuguese Super Cup match that they won 4-0.
The team still does not seem to be fully adapted to the new head coach’s ideas nor to the 4-2-3-1 tactical style that he is trying to implement. The team looks unbalanced and lacks creativity on the centre of the pitch and not even the return of the team’s captain Lucho Gonzalez to the deep lying playmaker role has managed to cause some noticeable impact.
On the medical department, there are no major headaches for Paulo Fonseca. The Brazilian left-back Alex Sandro is recovering from a small injury but he will probably be fully fitted for next Sunday’s match.
Vitória FC is on the 12th place of the table just four points above the relegation zone. José Couceiro arrived at the team with the competition already running to replace José Mota and he managed to bring to some extra motivation to the players. Vitória FC went on a nine match streak without being defeated and that fact had definitely brought up the players morale. Although, over the recent weeks, Vitória FC embarked on a complicated run of matches for the Portuguese league and failed to win every single of them.
Porto vs Vitoria Prediction
Next Sunday, FC Porto will have everything in their favour to defeat a fragilized Vitória FC team and they rely on the return of the Portuguese “Harry Potter”, Ricardo Quaresma, to motivate his teammates for grabbing a vital win for the team’s aspirations. That being said, the most likely outcome is 3-0 for FC Porto.
Porto vs Vitoria TV Schedule
The Porto vs Vitoria match will be televised on SICi and RTPi (both channels on USA cable packages) at 11:15 AM Pacific.
Porto vs Vitoria HIghlights
The Porto vs Vitoria video highlights will be uploaded soon after the end of the match.
