FC Arouca v Sporting CP

FC Arouca v Sporting CP

Saturday January 24th, 2026

Estádio Municipal de Arouca 

Matchday 19

I have a soft spot for the fans of Arouca. I am somewhat niche it's safe to say. For the longest time my most read posts were always Arouca games so I've always been left with the impression that some of their fans were the ones bumping up the miniscule readership numbers. I'm always grateful that anyone reads them so thank you to all of those of you that do, it is genuinely appreciated. Somewhere along the way lots more people have begun to read them and it still blows my mind when I look at the countries where they're being ready which is a list that pretty much covers the globe for everywhere except Portugal. Now that's irony if you're looking for some Alanis, you can have that one for free. I could have taken the easy route to promote the blog and used the colloquial term for Sporting CP but showing respect is important to me so if you're new to these posts, welcome, if you're a repeat offender, obrigado. Surely you've better things to do with your time. To those in Portugal, I'll let you off for choosing to read posts in your native tongue. 

The warm up

The two sides met on Matchday 2 at the José Alvalade and the lions imposed Arouca’s heaviest defeat of the campaign on them to date as they routed them 6-0 with a brace for each of Suárez, Trincão and Ricardo Mangas. The warning bells must have been going off that night that this was potentially going to be a long drawn out season when you're conceding two goals to the Quaver haired, moustachioed Mangas. Things haven't gotten much better for them since. 

At the time of writing going into the weekends fixtures ahead of this fixture against the lions they sit third bottom, though they do play everyone's favourite opponents AVS before they face Sporting and given they've not won a game all season there's no better place to try to look to pick up three points in their bid to avoid the drop. 

Since the two sides met in August they've strengthened their side in both transfer windows. 

Additional summer signings 

Romualdas Jasonas from FC Kauno Zalgiris for £166,000

Espen van Ee from SC Heerenveen for free

Well WiFi quality will have improved if nothing else.

Winter window signings

Bas Kuipers from FC Twente on loan

Javí Sanchez - free agent 

Yellu Santiago from Hellas Verona 

Named after his illiterate father's favourite colour 

Ignacio de Arrauabarrena from Barcelona SC for free

They might have made a few euros at the club shop with the amount of letters in his surname in shirt printing had it not been for the fact he's a goalkeeper and let's face it no one buys replica keeper kits. 

Outgoing 

Summer window 

Morlaye Sylla to Damac FC for free

Vladislav Morozov to Kolding IF on loan

Arouca season to date

To recap from my last head to head post they'd beaten AVS at home 3-1 through a Trezza brace and a goal from Djouahara before succumbing to the aforementioned 6-0 away loss to Sporting. 

Matchday 3 - Rio Ave (H) Fontán opened the scoring to give Arouca the lead. They found themselves 2-1 down just after the hour mark. Trezza equalised, only for Ave to make it 3-2 within a minute. Djouahara rescued a point scoring 2 minutes into additional time to make it 3-3. Their XG just 0.65 to 1.54. Both guilty of missing their 2 big chances.

Matchday 4 - Vitória SC (A) The sides shared a point in a 1-1 draw with the goals coming just after the half hour mark. Djouahara equalising for the visitors to maintain his good start to the campaign. XG maybe unsurprisingly low with 0.35 to 0.46. A game for the purists. Arouca missed their 1 big chance but didn't allow any to be created.

Matchday 5 - Casa Pia (H) A second defeat of the season, this time just the 2-0. Visitors XG 1.36 to 0.48. They missed 3 of 5 big chances and Arouca missed their 1.

Matchday 6 - Nacional (A) Despite conceding a penalty in the 65 th minute and going a goal behind, Arouca flew back with all 3 points courtesy of goals from Popovic and van Ee who scored the winner in the 88th minute. A valuable 2-1 win, their XG a reminder it's only as good as the chances you take, 1.22 to the islanders 2.70. Arouca converting both their big chances into goals, Nacional scored 1 of their 3.

Matchday 7 - FC Porto (H) No joy against the league leaders as they lost 4-0. XG 0.67 to 2.97, Porto scored 3 of their 4 big chances whilst the home side failed to create a single one. 

Matchday 8 - Famalicão (H) Trezza gave Arouca the lead in the second half but the were unable to hold on and the game finished 1-1. XG 0.72 to 1.75. Arouca scored their 1 big chance, Famalicão missed both of theirs. 

Taça de Portugal 3rd Round - Portimonense (A) A Puche brace sees Arouca secure a place in the 4th round with a 2-1 victory. 

Matchday 9 - Benfica (A) Os Três Grandes is not a set you want to complete as a smaller team in your first nine matches it must be said especially having already succumbed to a 6-0 and 4-0 defeat. Well it got no better here going down 5-0. They managed 5 attempts for their XG of 0.44 to 3.84. 0 big chances, the dirty pigeons scored 4 of their 5. Safe to say Arouca’s ambitions now starting to look more and more focused on survival even this early into the campaign.

Matchday 10 - Moreirense (H) Arouca found themselves 2-0 down at half time and were left kicking themselves as they missed all 3 of their big chances and the scoreline remained the same at the full time whistle. The visitors scored their 1 big chance. XG 0.59 to 0.68. 

Matchday 11 - Estoril (A) Their aren't many occasions when you score 3 goals away from home and still end up on the losing side. To compound their misery they twice took the lead through goals from Fukui and Djouahara, whose second would draw them level at 3-3 having gone behind for the first time. The winner coming 5 minutes from time and Arouca somehow contrived to lose their third straight game. Estoril scored 2 of their 3 big chances, the visitors missed their only 1. XG 2.06 to 1.13. 

Taça de Portugal Round 4 - AD Fafe (A) What better way to arrest your slide and get back to winning ways than a 4th round tie to Liga 3 opponents? Seems easy when you type it. Djouahara gave them the lead and things were looking good until their weren't and then they really weren't as 1-0 became 1-1 and in the 91st minute 2-1 and after that their name wouldn't be going into the hat for round 5. 

Matchday 12 - Braga (H) If Os Três Grandes has a plus one it's Braga and clearly keen not to miss out on an opportunity to boost their goal difference the northerners won 4-0 and it could have been so much worse as they actually missed 5 of their 6 big chances. So bad were Arouca that they created 3 attempts all night for an XG of just 0.06. One of those 3 came from a shot just inside the Braga half. Their XG 2.84.

Matchday 13 - Estrela (A) With confidence rock bottom maybe it came as no surprise when Arouca lost their sixth straight game in all competitions. 2-0 down Fukui gave them a glimmer of hope scoring just before the hour mark but the Star Boys made it 3-1 with 2 minutes to go and put paid to any ideas of a late comeback and stealing a point. Estrela with 24 attempts to 9, an XG of 3.33 to 0.59. They scored and missed 2 big chances apiece. Arouca didn't create a single one. 

Matchday 14 - Alverca (H) If ever there was a time to play a newly promoted side this was it for Arouca. The visitors must have been confident however of making it a seventh straight defeat. The footballing Gods shone on the side of Arouca though as they finally stopped the slide with a Lee goal giving them all three points in a narrow 1-0 win. They won't have cared. Just 5 attempts for the visitors to 18. They left with the oppositions worst XG of 0.22 to 1.61. No big chances created for them, Arouca missed 2 of their 3. 

Matchday 15 - Santa Clara (A) A valuable point and 4 from a possible 6 on the islands isn't a bad return. The game finished 0-0. XG 0.46 to 0.36, 0 big chances in the game and another for the purists.

Matchday 16 - Gil Vicente (H) Arouca raced to a 2-0 lead inside 11 minutes with goals from Lee and Trezza. Unfortunately goals either side of half time from the visitors saw their lead evaporate and the game finished 2-2. XG 1.31 to 1.81, Arouca scored 2 of their 3 big chances, GV missed 1 of their 2.

Matchday 17 - Tondela (A) New Year, New Arouca? Maybe not as they faced off against the other newly promoted side. They got off to a flier though as Trezza scored after 7 minutes. By the hour mark they were 3-1 down and that's how it stayed. XG 0.45 to 0.77. Tondela scored their 1 big chance, Arouca 1 of their 3.

So at the half way mark of the campaign they'd played 17, won 3, drawn 5, lost 9, GF 18, GA 42. The 18 scored, 13 from open play and 5 from set pieces. Top scorer Trezza with 6, Djouahara with 5 and 5 other scorers. The 42 conceded the worst defensive record in the division although clearly not helped by big scorelines in 5 of their 17 games where 4 or more were conceded. Their home record played 9, won 2, drawn 3, lost 4, GF 10, GA 19. Just 2 clean sheets to date the joint worst record in the division with 5 teams.

Their XG the leagues lowest with 12.4. 

Lowest average shots on target jointly with Casa Pia on 2.9 but their conversion rate the lowest at 11.1%.

22 big chances created the worst record in the division. They've missed the fewest big chances which has to be a positive right? Right? 50% success rate…anyone? Look I'm trying OK. 

Their XG conceded of 30.5 the second worst in the division. 

7 penalties conceded, joint worst record with Moreirense and AVS. 

Most red cards with 6, Fontán with 3 of those. 

Average attendance second worst with 1,804 above AVS on 1,733. By the time you've read this they'll most likely have played tomorrow and I'm going to wager that the attendance didn't help AVS average by the end of 90 minutes played. 

Arouca’s last win against the lions came back on Matchday 11 of the 2022/23 season when they won 1-0 at home. That however their only win in the last 20 in all competitions. The record standing at Won 1, drawn 2, lost 17. The 6-0 thumping in August their biggest loss in this fixture though they have also been on the end of two 5-1 thumpings amongst those 17 defeats. 

They won't be under illusions that their top flight status hangs in the balance as they enter the second half of the season and whilst a win against the lions may not be realistic they have to secure all three points tomorrow. Baring a miracle of epic proportions AVS are down and a win against them not only gives them a perfect head to head record should they somehow contrive to finish level on points but will give them an 11 point advantage for now. They need to hang onto Trezza and Djouahara which might be easier said than done when you have to sell to survive. It's the cancer that eats every Portuguese club whether you're Arouca, Sporting or Benfica at the top of the tree. 

In the markets 

Arouca 

Draw

Sporting CP