Krasnodar finished the previous season in the third place in the Russian championship and that was good result of this team, while Porto ended up in the second place in the Portuguese championship and that was not good enough given they had expected to win the title. Krasnodar started the new season in the Russian Premier League with two wins, draw and defeat, while the Portuguese Liga NOS hasn’t started yet. This is going to be their first head-to-head in European competitions.
Krasnodar had a pretty good previous season in which they won the third place, played in the quarter-finals of the Russian Cup and the Europa League round of 16. They again reached the European scene and on their way to the group phase of the Champions League they will face a very strong rival. Match with Porto is their first in European competitions this season, while in the Russian championship they have already played four matches. The season started for Krasnodar with a defeat by Akhmat, than they won Ufa and Sochi, while last weekend they played a big derby with champion Zenit. They were close to win but they received an equaliser for the final 1-1 in the injury time. Gazinsky and Claesson are out of action due to injuries.
Probable lineups FK Krasnodar: Safonov – Petrov, Spajic, Martynovich, Ramirez – Kambolov, Vilhena, Olsson – Namli, Cabella, Ignatjev
Porto, unlike Krasnodar, cannot be satisfied with the previous season. They had been leaders in the Championship for a long time, however, they lost steam in the finish of season and Benfica overtook them and they had to settle for the second place. In both Cups Porto was finalist and both times Sporting defeated them. They can find console in the Super Cup which they won at the beginning of season, and the Champions League where they had reached the quarter-finals, which was a solid achievement. Now, they must skip two hurdles before the group stage and the first one is Krasnodar. We should add that two stoppers left, Militao and Felipe, as well as Torres, Brahimi and Herrera, so it remains to be seen how new players will fit in.
Probable lineups FC Porto: Marchesin – Saravia, Marcano, Leite, Telles – D. Pereira, S.Oliveira – Corona, Otavio, Nakajima – Marega
Krasnodar has already played several competitive matches and it seems they are not in bad shape. It is hard to tell how Porto stands since this will be the first match for them this season. Porto made number of changes in the team but they have enough experienced with European matches and we believe that will not lose this away match.
Pick: Asian handicap -0.25 Porto 2.225 222/100 @1XBet