In this week 15 match, on Thursday Jan 5th, Santa Clara will host Sporting Braga at Estádio De São Miguel in a meeting of these two Primeira Liga teams. The game day is forecasted to be a cloudy and cool day, with daytime temperatures of only 13 degrees, which should make for a nice day for football. 15th placed Santa Clara is fresh off their 0-1 loss against Gil Vicente. Murilo struck first for Gil Vicente in the 41st minute on a feed from Fran Navarro, and with that single goal the scoring was complete. Neither team could manage anything else In the end, Santa Clara couldn’t muster any offence and Gil Vicente ran away with the shutout win. Santa Clara is looking for direction having earned 12 points in their last 10 matches, while sporting Braga sits at 3rd place in the tables. In their last match they recorded a 3-0 shutout win against Benfica. Abel Ruiz scored the first goal for Sporting Braga in the 2nd minute, then Ricardo Horta added another in the 32nd minute on a feed from Abel Ruiz In the end, Benfica was frustrated by Sporting Braga’s defence and couldn’t put any tallies on the board. Sporting Braga ended the match with the shutout victory. Sporting Braga should be reasonably happy with their recent performance, earning 21 points in their last 10 matches.
These two teams have not yet played each other this season, so it will be interesting how the match turns out. Last season these teams were evenly matched with 2 draws each.
Ricardo Horta has been the most prolific scorer on Sporting Braga in the last five matches with 3 goals. Kennedy Boateng has been the most prolific scorer on Santa Clara in his last five matches with two goals.