Sporting Lisbon vs Benfica Prediction and Betting Tips | December 29th 2024

Sporting Lisbon will host Benfica at the Jose Alvalade on Sunday in another round of the 2024-25 Primeira Liga campaign. The home side have struggled badly for results in recent games and have seen their title ambitions take a major hit, prompting the dismissal of head coach Joao Pereira less than two months into his reign at the club.

They played out a goalless draw against Gil Vicente in their last match and perhaps deserved more from the game but were guilty of wasteful finishing. The Lions have appointed Rui Borges as the new head coach and will hope they can get off to a flyer under the 43-year-old this weekend.

Benfica, meanwhile, are enjoying a strong run of form and will head into the Lisbon derby this weekend, looking to put out a statement of intent in the title race. They picked up a 3-0 win over Estoril Praia earlier in the week, with Vangelis Pavlidis opening the scoring midway through the first half before Zeki Amdouni came off the bench to score a late brace.

The visitors now sit atop the league table for the first time since March, with 38 points from 15 matches. They are just one point above their weekend opponents and will be looking to widen that gap in the capital on Sunday.

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Sporting vs Benfica Head-to-Head and Key Numbers

• Sunday's game will mark the 230th meeting between Sporting and Benfica. The home side have won 74 of their previous matchups while the visitors have won 103 times with their other 52 contests ending level.
• The home side are undefeated in their last three games in this fixture and have lost just one of their last six.
• Benfica's last win at the Jose Alvalade came back in April 2022.
• Sporting and Benfica are the highest-scoring sides in the Primeira Liga this season, with the former scoring 43 goals and the latter 37.

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Sporting vs Benfica Prediction

Sporting are undefeated in their last three games after losing each of their previous four. They, however, failed to impress in each of those outings and have a stern test ahead of them this weekend.

Benfica are on a run of back-to-back victories and are undefeated in their last nine games across all competitions. They are in far better form than their wayward opponents and should have enough to come out on top here.

Prediction: Sporting 1-2 Benfica

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Sporting vs Benfica Betting Tips

Tip 1 - Result: Benfica to win

Tip 2 - Goals - Over/under 2.5 - Over 2.5 goals (Each of the last six matches between the two teams have produced more than 2.5 goals)

Tip 3 - Both teams to score: YES (Both sides have found the back of the net in each of their last six matchups)