NOS League resumes at the Municipal Stadium Arouca, with the dispute of the fourth round match between the local team and the reigning champions SL Benfica. The Arouca finished last season in 5th place in the table, which guaranteed him a spot in the playoffs to play this edition Europa League. However, Lito Vidigal’s team fell in the decisive playoff against Greek champions Olympiakos, staying with honey on the lips.
The team, which last season lost only six of the 34 matches played, achieving 13 wins and 15 draws for a total of 54 points, has not started well this season, managing only one win (2-0 against Nacional) and two defeats (Boavista 2-0 to 2-0 against Vitoria Setubal). With the hope of repeating his good season last year, the team has been strengthened with the Ecuadorian international Marlon Jesus Pabon, on loan from the National Ecuador; Brazilian left back Vitor Costa, who arrives on loan for the next two seasons; and midfielder André Santos, who record for the next two seasons.
All players will be available to Lito Vidigal for this match.
Probable team: Gottardi – Gege, Velázquez, Jubai, Pereira – Santos, Nuno Coelho – Mateus, Kuca, Crivellaro – Walter Gonzalez.
League NOSEl SL Benfica began their title defense with a hard defeat during his visit to Tondela on the first day (0-2), tied to 1 against Vitoria Setubal in their home opener before defeating 1-3 National in the pre-break of day selections. There are many new faces and important developments with respect to last season. They have left Renato Sanches (signed by Bayern Munich for 35 million euros) and Nico Gaitan (for which Atletico Madrid paid 25 million euros), plus the final pass in the end Baby Eibar, which has left box 1.5 million, and incorporated 9 new players, with the largest spending in the final purchase of Greek striker Mitroglou to Fulham English by 7 million euros. Argentine ends Franco Cervi and Oscar Benitez arrive from the championship of their country, by just under 7.5 million euros between them, while the Colombian pivot Atletico Junior, Guillermos Celis, firm in exchange for 2.2 million to try to cover together the former Vitoria Setubal, André Horta, the gap left by the Portuguese international Sanches. The Central Sub Kalaica 19 Croatian Branimir; Peru André Carrillo end, from Sporting CP; Serbian Andrija Zivkovic from Partizan; and Brazilian Danilo Barbosa pivot, on loan from SC Braga, the Eagles reached at zero cost.
After a somewhat irregular season (victory against Wolfsburg defeats against Sheffield Wednesday, Torino and Lyon), Benfica defeated SC Braga 3-0 in the final of the Supercopa de Portugal. Jonas Gonçalves, the team’s top scorer last season, André Almeida and Jardel are low by injury for this match, while Mexican striker Raul Jimenez and Serbian midfielder Lubomir Fejsa are serious doubts.
Probable team: Julio Cesar – Nelsinho, Lisandro, Lindelof, Grimaldo – Fejsa, Horta, Pizzi, Salvio – Rafa, Mitroglou.
Six wins and a draw in the last 8 meetings is the favorable balance against Arouca champion, however, it was one of the few to defeat them last season (1-0 in match played on August 23, 2015). The prognosis, with the low at the front of the Eagles, is that the home side will not lose in the worst case by more than one goal down.