Fresh off the back of crashing out of the Taca de Portugal, Arouca play host to Benfica at the Estadio Municipal de Arouca in round 12 of the Primeira Liga on Sunday.
Having won the last 11 meetings between the two teams since August 2015, As Aguias will head into the weekend looking to extend their dominance over the hosts and move within five points of the top of the standings.
Match preview
Arouca's Taca de Portugal journey came to an end in the fourth round as they suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Farense when the two sides squared off last Saturday.
In an action-packed opening 32 minutes at the Estadio Municipal de Arouca, Dario Poveda and Elves Balde scored either side of Alfonso Trezza's 16th-minute equaliser to fire Farense through to the fifth round.
This was in keeping with their struggles in the Primeira Liga, where Arouca are without a win in their last five matches, losing three and claiming two draws, and have won just one of their last eight matches since the start of September.
Having secured a seventh-placed finish last season, Vasco Seabra's men have stumbled into the 2024-25 campaign as they find themselves rooted to the bottom of the table, with just eight points from their 11 matches so far.
Arouca's poor start to the season has been owing to their lack of cutting edge at the attacking end of the pitch, where they have scored the joint-fewest number of goals so far (6) while allowing 19 at the back.
While the Arouquenses will be looking to find their feet this weekend, next up is the daunting challenge of taking on an opposing side who have won their last 11 meetings, stretching back to a 1-0 victory in August 2015.
On the other hand, Benfica left it late against Monaco in their midweek Champions League clash as they fought back from behind twice to snatch a 3-2 victory over the Ligue 1 side.
Eliesse Ben Seghir and Soungoutou Magassa scored either side of Vangelis Pavlidis's 48th-minute strike to put Monaco in front heading into the final 10 minutes but Arthur Cabral and Zeki Amdouni scored in a late four-minute spell to turn the tie on its head.
Before that, they stormed through to the fourth round of the Taca de Portugal last Saturday, when Angel Di Maria netted a hat-trick to fire As Aguias to a 7-0 victory over Estrela Amadora at the Estadio da Luz.
Benfica now turn their focus to the Primeira Liga, where they are on a run of six back-to-back victories and are unbeaten in their last nine games, claiming eight wins and one draw since a 2-0 defeat against Famalicao on August 11.
Bruno Lage's men have picked up 25 points from their 10 league matches so far to sit third in the standings, two points behind second-placed Porto and eight adrift of leaders Sporting Lisbon.
Team News
Arouca remain without several players down the spine of the team as Kouassi Eboue (muscle), Nino Galovic (knee) and Pedro Moreira (muscle) continue their spells on the sidelines.
Uruguayan defender Matias Rochas has missed each of the last eight games since coming off injured in September and the 23-year-old will play no part in this weekend's clash.
Oriol Busquets continues his lengthy spell on the sidelines after sustaining a severe injury in May while fellow midfielder Vitinho is yet to feature this season after picking up an injury in May.
As for Benfica, 23-year-old forward Tiago Gouveia has been out of action since coming off with a shoulder injury in August and is out of contention for this weekend's clash.
He is joined on As Aguias' injury table by German defender Jan-Niklas Beste, who is set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines after coming off with an ACL injury against Estrela in November while Renato Sanchez is a doubt, having missed the last two matches.
Arouca possible starting lineup:
Mantl, Esgaio, Popvic, Fontan; Dante; Simao, Sylla; Santos, Jason, Rodrigues, Alfonso; Trezza
Benfica possible starting lineup:
Trubin; Araujo, Silva, Otamendi, Carreras; Aursnes, Luis; Di Maria, Kokcu, Akturkoglu; Pavlidis
We say: Arouca 0-3 Benfica
Benfica are currently firing on all cylinders and will be backing themselves to see off an out-of-sorts Arouca side who have endured a difficult start to the season. That said, we predict a one-sided affair at the Estadio Municipal de Arouca, with As Aguias claiming all three points.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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