League leaders FC Porto visit bottom side Casa Pia after Champions League defeat

Casa Pia host FC Porto on Saturday at 18:00 at the Estádio Municipal de Rio Maior in round six of the Portuguese Primeira Liga. The match will be officiated by referee José Bessa of the Porto football association, according to RTP.

Contrasting league positions

FC Porto sit alone at the top of the table with a perfect record of five wins in five matches (15 points), while Casa Pia are rock bottom in 18th place with just a single point, earned in a goalless draw against Vitória de Guimarães last round. The Lisbon club have yet to score a goal this season and have conceded 11, including seven in a single match against Benfica.

Porto coming off Champions League loss

Midweek, FC Porto suffered their first defeat of the season, losing 0-2 at home to Manchester City, a match in which, as Observador noted, the team failed to register a single shot on target. Coach Francesco Farioli stressed ahead of the Casa Pia match that his side cannot afford to think about next week's classic against Benfica and must focus entirely on the task at hand.

A reminder from last season

Farioli recalled that it was precisely in Rio Maior, on 2 February last season, that Casa Pia — then coached by Álvaro Pacheco — pulled off a surprise 2-1 win over FC Porto, the club's only league defeat that season, which they nonetheless went on to win. "Last season's match has to be a lesson," Farioli said. Casa Pia's new coach, Filipe Coelho, said his team is now very different from the one that faced Benfica earlier, feeling better prepared against an opponent with similar qualities.

Lineups

Farioli made three changes compared with the Manchester City game, handing a first league start to Hwang Inbeom alongside Jan Bednarek and Francisco Moura. Porto will again be without Victor Froholdt, still recovering from a concussion under UEFA's return-to-play protocol, as well as Zaidu Sanusi, Vasco Sousa, André Miranda, Oskar Pietuszewski and Samu Aghehowa. New signing Gabriel Mec makes his bench debut; according to A Bola, Porto paid Brazilian club Grêmio de Porto Alegre 11 million euros for him. Casa Pia, fielding Mohamed Salah on the right flank and Henrique Araújo up front, will be looking to finally get off the mark and score their first goal of the season.