The 1st legs of the round of 16 in the Europa League will be played out this week and Thursday night features the mouthwatering clash between Portuguese outfit, Sporting Braga, and their French counterparts, Monaco, when the two teams meet at the Estádio Municipal de Braga.
Braga will head into this home 1st leg tie on the back of a four-match unbeaten run in all competitions, recording wins against Tondela in the Liga Portugal and a win on penalties in the previous round of the Europa League against Moldovan side, Sheriff, to earn their place in the last 16 of this year’s competition.
‣🗓 La planning de la semaine avec le retour de l'@EuropaLeague.— AS Monaco 🇲🇨 (@AS_Monaco) March 7, 2022
‣🗓 La planning de la semaine avec le retour de l'@EuropaLeague.
Back-to-back draws with Santa Clara and Boavista in 0-0 and 1-1 stalemates in the Portuguese top flight have followed though.
Braga have been involved in a mixed bag of results throughout the whole of this season to date.
A similar theme has unfolded in the Europa League as well for Braga who have managed to win just four out of their last 10 tie at this level, while also slipping to five defeats as well, so there’s no guarantees of a result in this 1st leg for the hosts.
Monaco have produced some reasonable results overall in all competitions in recent times as the French Ligue 1 visitors have suffered just the two defeats out of their last eight matches.
Both of which were on the domestic front with losses incurred against Reims in Ligue 1 (at home) and losing on penalties away from home at Nantes in the Coupe de France.
However, Monaco have also collected four wins during this period which includes wins in the earlier rounds of the Coupe de France over Lens and Amiens respectively, along with Ligue 1 victories over Lyon and Marseille.
Results on the Europa League front have been stubborn but also pretty consistent as the visitors have lost just two of the last 13 ties overall which were to Anderlecht and Tottenham while also picking up four wins as well.
However, the most prevalent result which Braga have been involved in during this 13-match period have been draws as no fewer than seven stalemates have unfolded where Braga have been concerned.
In addition, four of Monaco’s last six ties away from home in the Europa League have also ended in draws.