Mafra
- The home team are in inconsistent form, having not found their rhythm in the Promotion phase.
- The hosts enter the game sitting near the bottom in the table with 4 points.
- Orest Shala has built a solid side at Mafra, one that has a German-influenced feel to it with players rotating positions and an attack-minded philosophy.
- They press well and get their wide men overlapping to offer width and depth, usually playing at a high tempo and using their set-pieces and transitions to catch opponents off guard.
Santarém
- Santarém are a compact, disciplined team with an underrated goal scorer in Eric Ayiah.
- The visitors have 6 and will have promotion aspirations if they can get into the top-four by the end of the season.
- Santarém’s structure is more conservative under Carlos Fernandes with the team setting up deep, compact and disciplined, and not overly expansive in terms of the areas of the field they attempt to occupy.
Head-to-Head
- There has been a three-way split in the head-to-heads for this campaign, with Mafra winning 2-1 away, drawing 0-0 here and losing 3-1 to Santarém in the most recent meeting.
- Mafra have three wins, two draws and a defeat in their last six.
- Santarém have been involved in tight, low-scoring matches recently, including the 3-1 victory over Mafra.
Key Players
Mafra have the pace and freshness of Marculino Ninte and other recent signings to offer in behind Niang , who will be the goal scorer bet for the hosts and is also good value to score anytime given his double-figure haul this season.
Betting Insights
- Mafra are odds-on favorites with a 1.92 price tag ahead of this Friday’s match.
- The visitors are priced at 3.81 and the draw is 3.4.
- The Under 2.5 goals wager at 1.67 looks the way to go given the recent defensive records of these two sides.
Prediction
However, home advantage and Mafra’s attacking setup could tilt the balance in the home team's favor.
