Sporting CP VS Maritimo

Sporting welcome visitors from Madeira for this Portuguese League Cup round 3 clash at Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon early Wednesday morning Beijing time. It has been a somewha disappointingt season for Sporting as a whole so far – for their high standards to be specific. It seems, however, that the betting market has now reacted too heavily to their unarguably lowered level of football. In the Champions League they finished third in Group D – behind English Tottenham and German Frankfurt. They will continue their European campaign in the UEFA Europa League early 2023.. Last season they qualified from the group stage but got heavily beaten (0-5) on aggregate in the round of 16 and but did, quite surprisingly, manage to avoid defeat in Manchester - against the "Citizens" in the second leg. They - once again – lost/sold some important players after last season but, even taking that into account, they have looked weaker in Liga Portugal than I would have expected before the 2022-2023 season started.. Last season they finished in 2nd place, behind Porto, with 85 points to their account. At the moment they occupy the 4th place, three points behind the much-improved Braga.

Sporting's goal difference is 26:15. I think they still have an excellent chance of toppling Braga during the remainder of the season.Indeed, I do rate them as the third-best team in this league in my power rating that reflects the teams' pure class. The League Cup is surely not their main priority this season but they still seem to take it seriously – especially now that Liga Portugal is on a World Cup break.. It is good to realize that there is quite often some squad rotation in the League Cup, especially with the very best teams like Porto, Benfica, today's hosts and Braga which, in many cases. can lead to even big odds movements near the kickoff.. I would not be too surprised to see Sporting's talented and smart coach, Ruben Amorim,37, to do some rotating here as well – at least through maximum number of substitutions. However, Sporting have been on fire in the League Cup so far and have a goal difference of 8:0 and maximum six points to their account! They were strong in their most recent match beating Rio Ave 2-0 away from home. Rio Ave, who currently occupy the 10th place in the standings, are much better team than Maritimo.. Even so, Sporting recorded much more scoring chances (18-5) and especially shots on goal – 11-1. They looked very impressive especially defensively and were clearly very eager to win! Before this they crushed Farense 6-0 at home! Furthermore, before humiliating Farense Sporting took a 2-1 win on the road against a pretty weak Famalicao in Liga Portugal but seemed to be quote far from their best level in this match though The convincing victories over Farense and Rio Ave must have been a major boost to their confidence which seemed to be a little low at times in October..

The main rationale behind this pick is, in fact, to bet against the very bad visitors! Sporting are massive favorites here but my fans and I need them to win by at least two goals' difference. The chance for this is almost 70%. Maritimo have lost both of their matches in the League Cup without scoring a single goal. Farense beat them 2-0 last week and they did have some scoring chances but their offense lacked speed, structure and creativity. On the 1st of this month they suffered a home defeat to Rio Ave 0-1as favorires according to the bookies. Their forward Jesus Andres Ramirez Diaz did receive a red card already in the first half but even taking that factor into account I was disappointed by their performance. They have taken just six points in Liga Portugal and have netted the ball just eight times! Their defense has been bad as well – they have conceded 27 goals.. Things look grim for them and I believe their main focus is in the desperate fight to avoid relegation. They have won just one of their most recent 16 matches – losing most of them! They seem to have totally lost their confidence.. They have some potential to improve though - they finished 10th last season but I still think to bookies fail to realize just have bad they are at the moment! In terms of injuries Sporting Lisbon will have to cope without Daniel Braganca and Luis Neto, who suffer from cruciate ligament and knee injuries respectively. As for the visitors, they will try to challenge Sporting without Venezuelan forward Jesus Ramirez, who is set to serve the second of his three-game ban for the red card mentioned above. In his absence Percy Liza is expected lead the attack – I think he is an over-rated player. The massive underdohs will also be misisng key players Geny Catamo, Rafael Brito, Moises Mosquera and Pedro Teixeira.