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Peter Green - February 14, 2022
Porto vs Lazio
UEFA – Europa League
Date: Thursday, 17 February 2022
Kick-off at 20:00 UK / 21:00 CET
Venue: Estádio do Dragão.
The Dragons finished third in Group B of the Champions League and thus, paved their way to the knockout round Play-offs in UEFA Europa League. The visitors finished second in Group E of the current Europa League and now have to battle Porto in a bid to play in the Round of 16. Porto hosts the White and Sky Blues in the first leg of the two-legged tie in the knockout round playoffs of the Europa League at their home ground of Estadio de Dragao this Thursday.
Porto are at top flight in Portuguese Primeira Liga standings and have won 6 out of their last 7 home fixtures, which is evidence of their dominance in the current season. They head into this match with a 2-2 draw against Sporting recently. They never lost a game in the league while winning 19 of the 22 games played this season.
The hosts have lost each of their last two home matches in the knockout rounds of the UEFA Europa League, once against Borussia Dortmund in 2015-16 and the other to Bayer Leverkusen in 2019-20.
Lazio will come into the encounter after a 3-0 Serie A win to beat Bologna in their previous fixture. They are currently 6th in the league with 12 wins and 7 losses from the 25 matches played this season.
This will be the visitor’s 12th two-legged tie in the knockout stages of the UEFA Europa League. Of the previous 11, they have won the first leg only twice while losing their most recent such game against Sevilla in the RO 32 in 2018-19.
Porto have won 10 out of their 11 home matches and lost none while Lazio have lost 4 out of their last 8 games on road. The White and Sky Blues are placed sixth in Serie A which is further evidence of their overall inconsistency despite recent stability in results.
Therefore we feel that a home win is highly probable this Thursday as Porto are literally unstoppable at home while the shaky away performance of the visitors’ further strongholds the point.
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