Braga vs Newcastle Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Braga and Newcastle continue their preparations for the new season with this midweek friendly as both clubs seek to continue their good pre-season form with their respective leagues in mind.

Following the end of their rather successful season, Braga will be hard at work preparing for their last pre-season friendly before competitive football starts up again for the Portuguese side. After a feeble cup and league cup run, where they only managed to reach the last 32 and the group stage respectively, Braga will be proud of the other achievements they obtained. Finishing fourth in the league- one position more than their previous season- enabled them to have the possibility of playing European football for the fourth season in a row. After playing Newcastle they will face Ukrainian side Zorya in the hope of reaching the Europa League and try and better last season’s performance, when they topped their group but fell to eventual finalists Olympique de Marseille.

Manager Abel Ferreira has brought in reinforcements after losing a couple of key players such as Danilo, who joined Nice for 10m euros, the club’s third most expensive departure ever. That money went towards bringing in midfielders João Novais and Eduardo, from Rio Ave and Estoril, as well as signing Bruno Viana from Olympiacos. Os Arcebispos’ pre-season has been long and intense. It kicked off with a victory against their reserve side, and despite then going on to lose 2-1 to Leixões they’ve not lost since. After winning the following two games by 3 goals against Hull City and Milwall, the Portuguese team would only then win by one goal against Santa Clara, Desportivo Aves and Chaves, and would draw 1-1 with Real Betis and Celta de Vigo.

Some of these games were against some potential rivals in the Europa League, so to play them and get such positive results is an indication that everything is going very well in Braga.

Newcastle United’s situation is vastly different to that of Braga. Their upcoming fixture will be their second-last friendly before hosting Tottenham Hotspur in the opening weekend of the Premier League. Following their very strong promotion push two years ago and finishing first, Rafa Benítez decided to stay at the Magpies in hope of securing top flight football for another season, which he achieved magnificently by finishing 10^th, with a very limited and discreet transfer window.

This summer has been even quieter for the club, despite signing Ki Sung-yueng on a free from Swansea, Fabian Schär from Deportivo La Coruña and Kenedy on loan from Chelsea. All of these are very solid signings, but especially the latter, who impressed Benítez enough last year to warrant his second loan spell at the club.

Newcastle’s pre-season has been a quiet one, as they only have domestic competitions to look forward to this upcoming season. It started off with a comfortable 2-0 win against Irish side St Patrick’s Athletic, followed by a 2-2 draw with Championship team Hull, and last week’s 0-0 against current Portuguese champions Porto.

Taking into account both team’s pre-season fixtures, it’s easy to believe that Braga would, on paper, walk all over Newcastle, due to the simple fact they’ve played three times as many games in the same time period. However, Abel Ferreira is at the critical point in the season- he has to be careful to not overwork his players with the Europa League qualifiers just around the corner. Despite this, Benítez’s side could suffer from lack of playtime, and with nothing really at stake for the Magpies, it’s hard to see them making an extra effort for this match.

Combining this with Braga’s caution makes me believe that the match will probably end as a draw, and both sides aren’t unfamiliar with ending games level on goals. Furthermore, under 3.5 goals is also a safe bet, seeing as both sides haven’t been scoring many goals as of late.