Benfica Lisbon vs Sporting Lisbon Prediction & Betting Tips - Liga Portugal

Prediction published on 14/01/2023, 01:59  by Daniel Ngulu in Liga Portugal Predictions

Sporting Lisbon have the chance to haul themselves back into title contention when they travel to Benfica for this big game on Sunday. Sporting will go into this game placed fourth in the league standings with 28 points, 12 behind league leaders Benfica. Hosts Benfica have stabilized in the last two matches and will be looking to open a nine-point gap with three points in this game. Benfica are coming from their second straight win after a run of two winless matches – they beat Varzim 2-0 in the Portuguese Cup in their last game, which also marked their second straight clean sheet. They are the league’s best scoring side with 38 goals and also have the joint best defence in the league, having conceded 10 times in 15 matches, which gives them the best goal difference too. With these numbers and a massive gap in points ahead of Sporting, Benfica are outright favorites, also going into this match with eight straight wins at home in the league. The league leaders have lost only once this season in the league.

Sporting Lisbon hit a new low at the start of 2023, losing their opening league game of the year and it wasn’t against a very strong opponent. They fell 1-0 to relegation threatened Maritimo, in what was Maritimo’s only second win of the league this season. Sporting have to rise from that and it could be a turning point to their season if they do it here. Much of their impressive performances recently have come from the League Cup and they will hope to transfer the same to the league. They have four wins in five matches and come into this game six points below the automatic Champions League spot. In the last six matches, Sporting have kept five clean sheets but four of those clean sheets have been in the League Cup. Four of the seven wins in their last eight matches have been in the cup competition. They don’t have a great defensive run in the league, keeping just two clean sheets in the last nine but they’ve scored two or more goals in three of the last four.