Sporting Braga host Premeira Liga rivals Pacos de Ferreira on Thursday night at the Estádio Municipal de Braga. The home side is kicking off its League Cup group play while Pacos de Ferreira will play for a second time in the competition.
Pacos de Ferreira fell to group rival Boavista 2-1 away from home to start the League Cup. Now, manager Jorge Simao is aiming to get the team’s cup tournament up and running on Thursday night at Braga.
O Mr. Miyagi deve estar tão orgulhoso como nós deste corte 🙏🏼Obrigado, @nuno5sequeira 🥰📺 @SPORTTVPortugal pic.twitter.com/4SJM966Fun— SC Braga (@SCBragaOficial) October 26, 2021
O Mr. Miyagi deve estar tão orgulhoso como nós deste corte 🙏🏼Obrigado, @nuno5sequeira 🥰📺 @SPORTTVPortugal pic.twitter.com/4SJM966Fun
The visitors should feel they have a chance of collecting a cup win on Thursday night versus Braga. The teams played previously in the Premeira Liga with the game finishing nil-nil on September 11.
Braga are unbeaten in seven of the last nine games versus Pacos de Ferreira in all competitions. Manager Carlos Carvalhal takes the team into the game following a win versus Gil Vicente 1-0 over the weekend.
Carvalhal’s team has posted a record of 6W-4D-2L over the course of 12 matches in all competitions this season. They have outscored opponents 22-11 and kept five clean sheets.
Pacos de Ferreira have played 16 times in all competitions this season. They have a record of 5W-5D-6L over the course of those 16 fixtures. Simao’s team has scored 18 goals but conceded 18 times. Pacos de Ferreira drew nil-nil at the weekend against Arouca in the league.
As it stands, Carvalhal has no new injuries at Braga. The team will go into the fixture with a fully fit squad. Ricardo Horta leads Sporting Braga in goals with six in 11 matches in all competitions this term. Iuri Medeiros has tallied four goals in all competitions.
Simao has no new injuries either heading into matchday 2 of the League Cup. He will be without Stephen Eustaquio, who was sent off in the team’s previous League cup game.
Forward Nuno Santos leads the team in goals with three. The team averages 1.12 goals per game and concede 1.12 goals per match.
Pacos de Ferreria should concede goals this time around against Sporting Braga despite the teams playing out a nil-nil result in September.
Both managers could rotate their squads for the League Cup fixture. The rotation could lead to both teams scoring goals and over 2.5 goals being tallied.
Sporting Braga should continue their current two-match winning streak and turn it into a three consecutive matches with a win. Carvalhal’s side will pick up a victory and move level with Boavista on three points in their League Cup group.