FC Porto vs Lille
Club Friendlies (Algarve Football Cup)
Date: Friday, 20 July 2018
Kick-Off at 20:00 UK / 21:00 CET
Venue: Estadio Do Algarve, Sao Joao Da Venda.
Porto and Lille will open the second edition of the Algarve Football Cup on Friday evening at Estadio Do Algarve.
Benfica defeated Spanish Real Betis 2-1 last year as the event got extended to three teams with Everton joining these two sides in the battle for the trophy.
The tournament has a friendly character and serves as a perfect opportunity for teams to make strong tests ahead of upcoming domestic challenges.
Primeira Liga champions began their pre-season schedule only on Tuesday evening when they lost to local rivals Portimonense 2-1 in spite of fielding a pretty strong line-up which saw Moussa Marega lead the line.
Vincent Aboubakar also got his chance in the second half, while the only goal came through Andre Pereira who has just recently returned from loan at Vitoria Setubal.
Nevertheless, the head coach Sergio Conceicao will certainly be eager to see improvements to such performance on Friday when his troops are about to tackle a much more serious opposition.
Porto vs Lille: Head-to-head
Porto have a positive head to head record with Lille as they’ve won both of two ties against the Ligue 1 opposition.
Lille are actually yet to score against the Portuguese outfit.
The two teams met each other in the play-off round of the Champions League back in the 2014/15 campaign when Porto won both legs (2-0 and 1-0).
Porto vs Lille: Prediction
Les Dogues were in action earlier than Porto in the off-season, but their boss Christophe Galtier does not have too many reasons for optimism after the 2-4 loss to the lower-division Reims on Saturday.
The defensive line revealed too much vulnerability on the occasion. It will be the music to the ears of Porto’s deadly attacking duo Marega & Aboubakar and backing the Portuguese side to net two or more goals looks to be a decent call here.
Since the tournament is played on the Portuguese soil, we have to see the value in backing Porto to win.
Lille barely saved the top flight status last year in France and they lost two super important midfielders Yves Bissouma and Ibrahim Amadou in the summer transfer window.
The attackingly-oriented likes of Naim Sliti and Eder also left the team in between two seasons and Galtier will no doubt have huge troubles keeping Les Dogues in the elite in the next term of Ligue 1.
Porto vs Lille: Bet Tips
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Porto to win
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Porto Over 1.5 Team Goals.
