FC Porto vs Arouca Predictions

• Porto are without injured striker Evanilson, who has scored 50% of their first-half home goals this season.
• Arouca have not conceded a first-half goal in four of their last five away league contests.
• Draw/Porto has landed in two of the last five head-to-head meetings with Arouca.

Dragons should win – but may need to be patient

Porto will pick up the chase of leaders Benfica when they return to Primeira Liga action with a home game against Arouca on Wednesday night. The Dragons won all three of their Taca da Liga games in December as their World Cup contingent gradually returned from Qatar and should not have too much trouble in eventually overcoming their mid-table opponents.

Arouca also won all three of their cup games and will arrive at the Dragao on the back of a five-game unbeaten away run in the league. Four of those games were against bottom six clubs, but they also held a decent Casa Pia side to a 0-0 draw in September.

Their record against Porto is terrible and they should not be expected to hold Sergio Conceicao’s side for the full 90 minutes here, but they could make it to the break without suffering any damage.  Armando Evangelista’s men have been level at the break in four of their six away league games this term and kept pre-interval clean sheets in four of their last five such contests.

Evanilson absence could help Arouca squeeze up

Those statistics make the 11/4 about Draw/Porto in the half-time/Full-time betting seem worth the risk – even if the hosts have been ahead by the break in four of their five home league games this season.

Evanilson, who came off with a knee injury very early on against Gil Vicente last Wednesday, could be a big miss for Porto here as he has accounted for exactly half of the Dragons first-half league goals at home.  What he offers in terms of pace is not matched by either Mehdi Taremi or Toni Martinez and it might affect how quickly Porto can establish their dominance.

A 3-0 Porto win is the preferred correct score play as Arouca have conceded an average of 2.75 goals a game away to the ‘big three’ in Portugal since they were promoted back to the top flight last year. Three of Porto’s five home wins this season have been by three-goal margins and two have been by the 3-0 scoreline predicted.

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