Fresh off the back of booking their spot in the Taca da Liga semi-finals, Braga go head to head with Arouca at the Estadio Municipal de Arouca in round 10 of the Primeira Liga on Sunday.
Vasco Seabra's men have failed to win any of their last five home games against Os Arcebispos since September 2014 and will head into the weekend looking to end this poor 10-year run.
Match preview
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Arouca continue to struggle for results at the bottom end of the Primeira Liga standings as they suffered a 4-1 hammering at the hands of Estoril Praia when the sides met last Saturday.
After falling behind to Henrique Araujo's 24th-minute opener, Estoril upped the ante at the Estadio Antonio Coimbra da Mota as Alejandro Marques, Wagner Pina, Pedro Alvaro and Jordan Holsgrove all hit the target to turn the game on its head.
Since picking up a hard-fought 1-0 win over Farense on September 22, Arouca have failed to win their subsequent three matches, suffering defeats against Porto and Estoril either side of a 1-1 draw with newly-promoted AVS on October 5.
With last weekend's result, the Arouquenses have now lost six of their nine games to start the Primeira Liga campaign while claiming two wins and one draw to sit 14th in the table with seven points from the first 27 available.
While Arouca will be looking to find their feet this weekend, next up is their challenge of an opposing side who are unbeaten in 16 of their last 18 encounters, picking up 12 wins and four draws since January 2011.
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Braga, on the other hand, picked up a dream start to the 2024-25 Taca da Liga campaign as they fought back from behind to secure a 2-1 victory over Vitoria de Guimaraes and reach the semi-finals on Wednesday.
Nuno Santos opened the scoring in the 10th minute to Guimaraes in front but Sikou Niakate levelled matters midway through the first half before Bruma scored from the spot in the 75th minute to complete the hosts' comeback.
Braga now turn their focus to the Primeira Liga, where they have won three of their last four games — scoring 10 goals and keeping three clean sheets — with a 2-1 loss against Porto at the Estadio do Dragao on October 6 being the exception.
Head coach Carlos Carvalhal will be delighted with his side's start to the league campaign as Os Arcebispos have picked up five wins and two draws from their nine matches so far to collect 17 points and sit fifth in the league table, and could move into third place with all three points this weekend.
Braga will be backing themselves to continue from where they left off in midweek as they journey to the Estadio Municipal de Arouca, where they are unbeaten in their last five visits, claiming three wins and two draws while scoring 14 goals and conceding just once since a 1-0 loss in September 2014.
Team News
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Arouca remain without several players down the spine of the team as Kouassi Eboue (muscle), Nino Galovic (knee) and Quaresma Correia (muscle) are currently recuperating from injuries.
Spanish midfielder Oriol Busquets has been sidelined since coming off injured against Vitoria de Guimaraes in May, while fellow midfielder Vitinho is also yet to feature this season due to injury.
Uruguayan defender Matias Rochas has missed each of the last five matches since coming off injured in September's game against Rio Ave and the 23-year-old is also out of contention for the home side.
As for Braga, Carvalhal will be unable to name Brazilian defender Robson Bambu, who has been out of action since picking up a thigh injury against Rapid Vienna back in August.
German defender Bright Arrey-Mbi will also play no part in this weekend's matchup, having sustained a muscle problem while on international duty against Poland Under-21s on October 15.
Arouca possible starting lineup:
Mantl; Esgaio, Popovic, Fontan, Dante; Simao, Fukui; Jason, Sylla, Rodrigues; Araujo
Braga possible starting lineup:
Lima; Oliveira, Ferreira, Marin, Ribeiro; A Horta, Carvalho; Bruma, R Horta, Fernandes; Gharbi
We say: Arouca 1-2 Braga
There have been a combined 30 goals scored in the last nine meetings between Arouca and Braga, and we anticipate another end-to-end affair at the Estadio Municipal de Arouca this weekend.
While Arouca have struggled for consistency in the league this season, Braga head into the weekend on a fine run of results and we are backing them to make it four away wins on the trot against the Arouquenses.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Joshua Ojele
