Benfica Lisbon vs Arouca Prediction & Betting Tips - Liga Portugal

Prediction published on 03/08/2022, 00:20  by Indran | Modified on 03/08/2022 at 06:25 in Liga Portugal Predictions

Benfica plays host to Arouca at the Estádio da Luz in this opening round match of the Portuguese Primera Division. The home team will be looking to improve on their disappointing third place finish of last season. Benfica were 17 points behind champions Porto and that is not good enough for a team of their stature. In the off season they sold star forward Darwin Nunez to Liverpool but fortunately for them they didn't seem to miss him too much in the pre-season as they won all six of their friendlies. Benfica have only lost once in their last 13 matches across all competitions. They will be confident coming into this match not only because of their great form but also the fact that they have beaten Arouca in their last six meetings between the sides.

Arouca had not had a very long pre-season and only played three matches to prepare for the new season. They had a mixed bag of results winning one match while losing and drawing the other two. The visitors will be looking for a vast improvement of their fortunes from last season when they finished in 15th position, narrowly avoiding relegation by just two points. Arouca struggled last season and this was mainly due to their performance in front of goal and finished the season with the second lowest goals tally. They will be hoping for more from their attack or otherwise it could be another long season. Arouca have a dismal away record losing their last four matches on the road and five of the last six.