Porto v Liverpool predictions: Portugal trip no walk in the park for Reds

Free football tips, best bets and analysis for Porto v Liverpool in the Champions League Group stage on Tuesday.

Where to watch

BT Sport 3, 8pm, Tuesday

Best bet

Porto +0.25 on Asian handicap
1pt 6-4 bet365

Team news

Porto
Centre-backs Chancel Mbemba and Pepe are out. First-choice keeper Agustin Marchesin is in contention after missing the start of the season.

Liverpool
Harvey Elliott and Thiago are out. Jurgen Klopp will make a tweak or two with Sunday's game against Manchester City in mind.

Match preview

Porto produced gutsy enough efforts against Manchester City and Chelsea during last season's Champions League to suggest they can compete with England's finest, and they should be able to give Liverpool a test at the Estadio Do Dragao.

The Reds have a very decent – and recent – record against the Portuguese highflyers, having won 5-0 and 4-1 on their trips in 2018 and a year later.

And clearly Jurgen Klopp's men are full of goals having scored three more at Brentford on Saturday in a 3-3 draw. They have scored exactly three in each of their four away games this season.

But they were too easily exposed defensively at Brentford and while Porto will be nothing like as dynamic as Thomas Frank's men were, they should fancy their chances of at least avoiding defeat in this second round of games in Group B.

Klopp will have more than one eye on Sunday's huge Premier League showdown with Manchester City, while Porto proved in their 0-0 draw at Atletico Madrid that they can defend well enough, so it could be worth siding with the Portuguese outfit on the Asian handicap.

Porto are in fine form, unbeaten in 18 matches in all competitions since a 2-0 home loss to Chelsea in the last eight of last season's Champions League. They won the return in London 1-0 and that came after they had seen off Juventus in the last 16. Earlier in the competition they had held Manchester City to a 0-0 draw.

This season under Sergio Conceicao they are going well again. A 1-1 draw at Sporting and goalless effort at Atletico, in which they restricted the Spaniards to just six efforts on goal, are more noteworthy than any of their wins over the Primeira's lesser lights.

Iranian frontman Mehdi Taremi has bagged four in his last five, Luis Diaz has five in the league, and they'll look to be stubborn with no need for risk-taking after avoiding defeat at the Wanda Metropolitano.

And Liverpool's performance at Brentford ought to be a worry for Klopp.

They haven't been anywhere close to step-perfect yet and once again the German will rest a few players.

His main worry on Saturday was the ease with which the Bees piled pressure on his defence, bypassing a below-par Liverpool midfield which wasn't at full strength and won't be again.

And they also had issues in their Champions League opener, a 3-2 win against Milan which they dominated yet still struggled to finish off.

Key stat

Liverpool have scored two or more in 14 of their last 18 away matches.

Inside info

Porto

Penalty taker Mehdi Taremi
Free-kick wizard Sergio Oliveira
Set-piece aerial threat Ivan Marcano
Card magnet Bruno Costa

Liverpool

Penalty taker Mo Salah
Free-kick wizard Trent Alexander-Arnold
Set-piece aerial threat Virgil van Dijk
Card magnet Fabinho

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