FC Porto will kick off their Primeira Liga season this Sunday as they welcome Belenenses SAD to the Estádio do Dragão in a campaign after they lost their title to Sporting Lisbon by five points in 2020/21.
Porto, as usual, enter as part of the ‘Big Three’ contingency that is expected to dominate the top end of Portugal’s top flight.
🎙"A mensagem é que joguem tranquilos"👉Antevisão de António Folha: https://t.co/PQTE3o2UUm⚽FC Porto B-Trofense🗓Sábado ⌚18h📍Estádio Luís Filipe Menezes #FCPorto #FCPortoB pic.twitter.com/lkza8xPmWT— FC Porto (@FCPorto) August 6, 2021
🎙"A mensagem é que joguem tranquilos"👉Antevisão de António Folha: https://t.co/PQTE3o2UUm⚽FC Porto B-Trofense🗓Sábado ⌚18h📍Estádio Luís Filipe Menezes #FCPorto #FCPortoB pic.twitter.com/lkza8xPmWT
Now, with Sérgio Conceição entering his fifth year as the head coach, the two-time Primeira Liga winner could be set to win his third as manager with Porto in 2021/22.
Porto have managed to keep hold of most of their players who helped them finish second last year, but they are now without Danilo Pereira, who left for Paris Saint-Germain.
Malang Sarr has also returned to Chelsea, but they did manage to retain the services of Marko Grujic, who joined on a permanent basis following a loan from liverpool.
Brazilian winger, Pepe, also joins the club from Gremio and at 24, he is looked at as part of the future to bring the league title away from the Portugal capital.
A huge boost for Porto is the players who have stayed on at the club. Top scorer, Mehdi Taremi, stays with them after his 16 league goals whilst the likes of Pepe, Jesus Corona, Luis Diaz and Mateus Uribe remain with them too.
As for Belenenses, they are coming off the back of a poor, lacklustre season in Portugal, where they seemed destined for mid table from early on and ended the campaign with just 40 points from 34 games, winning only nine - this was the joint-second least for clubs outside of the relegation zone.
What partially saved Belenenses from the drop last season - for which they were saved from by just six points - was their defence.
In fact, they conceded just 35 goals from 34 games, which was the least outside of the top six and the sixth best inside the division.
The worrying side for Belenenses, however, is the transfer of captain Silvestre Varela, who has joined the Porto ranks once again at 36, where he will feature for the Porto B squad in Liga Portugal 2.
With all this said, Porto should go out and win here, with both the fact that they are vastly superior and how Belenenses haven’t exactly improved from a dismal 10th last year.