Braga vs Chaves prediction 31.01.2024

• Competition: Liga Portugal
• Date: Wednesday, 31st January 2024
• Kickoff: 20:45 UTC / 21:45 CET
• Venue: Estádio Municipal de Braga (Braga)

After winning the League Cup in the previous game with a win after the penalty shootout against Estoril, Braga will continue their season with the Liga Portugal game at Estádio Municipal de Braga against the worst team in the league this season - Chaves. 

Braga were mostly the third or fourth-best team in Portugal in the previous decade and a half. Even though it is still early, it seems that finishing 4th in the league will be their maximum since they are eight points away from third place and already ten from the top spot. Even though they are not doing great in the league, by winning a League Cup title, we can safely say that this is a historic season for the popular Archbishops as that is only their sixth major trophy in the club's history. 

After a superb last season when Chaves secured 7th place and were on the brink of securing Europe, they totally collapsed this season and are looking like the primary candidate for relegation. Currently, they are 18th with 12 points, five points away from safe zone. Even though they are only five points away from the safe zone, Chaves look like the worst team in the league and will have a really hard task of securing survival. 

Braga vs Chaves pick: Over 2.5 goals

Braga have the second-best offense in Portugal with 42 goals in 18 rounds - 2.33 per game. However, the defense is not on point, and that is the reason they are not higher on the league's table. They already allowed 26 goals while keeping a clean sheet only once in 18 rounds! Because of an excellent offense and pretty bad defense, they have the highest goal per game in the league at 3.8! 

Chaves have been absolutely terrible defensively and have allowed 44 goals - by far the most in the league. So, conceding at least two or three goals against the second-best offense is an entirely real scenario. On the other hand, Chaves are averaging one goal per game and might score against Braga, which objectively have the trouble of keeping a clean sheet. 

Both teams were 13 times over 2.5 goals in 18 league games (72.2%), and in the previous h2h, we have seen a 4:2 win for Braga. Considering everything above, we expect a high-scoring game, most likely with both teams scoring.