Sporting Lisbon vs Arouca Predictions

• Sporting have won eight of their last nine home league games, seven of which came with a clean sheet.
• Arouca have failed to score in three of their last five league games.
• Arouca have failed to score on their last two trips to the Alvalade.

Sporting should secure solid home win

Sporting Lisbon appear to have rediscovered their clean sheet capability in recent weeks and can shut Arouca out to land another three points at the Estadio Jose Alvalade this weekend.

The ground echoed to the sound of boos and whistles on Wednesday when Os Leoes were on the wrong end of a controversial penalty decision that turned their Portuguese Cup semi-final first leg against Porto on its head. The hosts led the league leaders until that point, but lost their heads in the heat of the battle that ensued afterwards.

The visit of Arouca offers a great opportunity to get the midweek defeat out of their system before they travel to Manchester for the impossible task of overturning their 5-0 deficit to City in the Champions League. Arouquenses are battling hard to avoid the drop and come into this game with only one defeat in their lats five away games, suggesting Armando Evangelista is getting something right.

Arouca aren’t regular scorers on the road

Their win away at Vitoria Guimaraes late last month was arguably their best of the season, but they couldn’t follow it up with anything more than a home draw against second-bottom Moreirense even when the visitors were reduced to ten men.

Sporting’s quality should win through in this clash and we rate the hosts chances of keeping another clean sheet. Arouca have failed to score in three of their last five league games and on their last two trips to the Alvalade while seven of Sporting’s last nine home games have seen wins accompanied by clean sheets.

Ruben Amorim’s side can win this one to nil and we recommend a 2-0 margin in correct score betting because, even though Arouca conceded an average of just 1.58 goals per game on the road, they lost 2-0 and 3-0 away to the other members of Portugal’s big three.

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