After a very good game and a 2-0 victory over Club Brugge in Belgium in the Champions League, Benfica returns to its duties in the domestic championship. Given that they have only two points more than Porto, which is in second place, it should not be expected that Benfica will play this match in a mixed lineup. They really seem like the strongest team in the entire league and have been in fantastic form lately. So far, they have played 20 games in the championship and have only one defeat, with only two more draws. For a team like Benfica, it is almost irrelevant whether they play at their stadium or away, but they are still somewhat more effective on their home field, where they have an almost perfect performance. In 10 games played, they have a record of 9 wins and only one draw against Sporting. They have a fantastic goal difference of as many as 32 goals scored and 8 conceded, or in other words, they score slightly more than three goals per match on their home field. Similar efficiency in attack should be expected today, because they are visited by a team that likes to compete with stronger opponents.

Boavista is in the middle of the table without much chance, at least in my opinion, to get a place that ensures European qualifications. They have been playing rather erratically lately and have never been able to produce a series of good results. As I said, they are important for a team that plays very openly, but it seems that this team does not have a defense that can handle such an attacking style of play. The division of power in the Portuguese league is very clear. The quality of the four leading teams is far ahead of the others, while the teams in the middle of the table are of fairly similar quality. Looking at teams similar to them, Boavista has the worst defense of all. In 20 games so far, they have conceded 31 goals, while teams of similar quality (Casa Pia, Vitoria Guimaraes, Vizela...) managed to keep that number to no more than 21 conceded goals. A big problem for them will be the absence of three standard first-team players from this match. The two standard defenders Abasal (yellow cards) and Sasso (injury) will not be available to the coach, as well as the standard midfielder Perez. Those are very big absences before the match against the best team in the league and the question is how much they will be able to resist such a powerful Benfica.