Leicester City v FC Porto Betting Tips

Usually you would consider Porto the favourites for this match, however, after a convincing 3-0 win on their Champions League debut, Leicester have shown they can cope on the pressurised European stage.

The King Power Stadium will see the arrival of Champions League football for the first time on Tuesday night and, with the owners creating great atmospheres for domestic games, it will be interesting to see what the hierarchy do to make this an even more special occasion for the Leicester fans.

Leicester followed up their Champions League win at Club Brugge with a win against Burnley in the Premier League, however, since then they have lost 4-2 to Chelsea in the EFL League Cup (despite being 2-0 up) before losing 4-1 to Manchester United at the weekend; the Foxes were ripped apart and were 4-0 down at half time. The Champions League is certainly a chance for Claudio Ranieri’s side to refresh in another competition, in which they have confidence, and get back on track.

The Foxes first match in the Champions League saw them go up against a side who are also inexperienced in top level European football so this match against Porto, winners of the 2004 edition, sees them face a completely different test.

One man who has experience against Porto is Leicester’s record signing Islam Slimani. The former Sporting Lisbon man has scored six goals in eight matches (five wins) against Porto and, having made an excellent start to his Foxes career, he will be confident he can find the back of the net again on Tuesday night.

Porto did a great job of getting to the group stages by overcoming favourites AS Roma in the final qualifying round. However, their first match of the ‘actual’ competition was somewhat disastrous as they drew 1-1 at home to underdogs FC Copenhagen. Nuno Espírito Santo’s team ideally need all three points in the East Midlands on Tuesday if they want to have a fighting chance of qualifying for the knockout rounds from this incredibly competitive group.

Domestically they are currently three points behind table toppers Benfica. They also dropped points in the match immediately following the Copenhagen draw against bottom of the table Tondela but managed to improve on this poor form by beating Boavista at the weekend.

With Leicester clearly relishing the competition and Porto under great pressure to get a result, I think the Foxes can make it two Champions Leagues wins in two matches. Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel could return to the side which is a big boost for Ranieri and his men.

However, the Foxes are not the best defensively, particularly in recent games and Porto could exploit this and make the match a bit more interesting. Both Teams to Score, at 10/11, is certainly worth being on in this fixture.

I mentioned him the other day and I have to speak about him again. Islam Slimani has started his Leicester career exceptionally and has slotted right into Ranieri’s team. Additionally, having faced Porto multiple times as a Sporting Lisbon player, he might just have the edge. On top of this, the Algerian striker had a great record against Porto during his time in Portugal and will take even more confidence from that fact.

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