Next Wednesday, 18th of February 2015, the former two-time European champions of FC Porto will travel to Swiss territory to measure forces with FC Basel at St. Jakob Park for the first-leg of the Last 16 stage of the UEFA Champions League.

The Portuguese side are on a very positive streak of results, with four consecutive wins on domestic competitions, but they will certainly need to dig deep in order to bring a positive result from their travel to Switzerland. As for FC Basel, who are currently dominating the Swiss football league, they have just recently returned from the long Winter break, but they have all in their favour to cause their Portuguese opponents a major upset.

FC Porto put up some solid and quality performances during the group stage and walked through those six respective matches without a single defeat. Julen Lopetegui’s boys only failed to overcome the Ukrainian champions, Shakhtar Donetsk, as both matches ended up in a draw. The Dragons showed great class, especially on their away matches and they are certainly hoping to replicate those excellent performances at St. Jakob Park next Wednesday.

When it comes to domestic competitions, FC Porto are not having such a brilliant display. The former European champions are on the second place of the Portuguese league, four points behind SL Benfica, and they were already eliminated from the Portuguese Cup at the hands of one of their archrivals, Sporting CP.

FC Porto needed to start from scratch this season, after the turbulence that hit the team during the last campaign. The arrival of the Spanish manager Julen Lopetegui was a rupture with the recent past, as the former Barcelona’s goalkeeper brought some fresh ideas and a new game style as well.

For their travel to Basel, the Basque-born manager will only not be able to rely on the contribution of his fellow countryman Adrian Lopez, who is currently sidelined due to injury.

As for FC Basel, it is fair to say that the Swiss side is one of the most pleasant surprises of the this season’s competition. The RotBlau were placed in a complicated group, together with Real Madrid, Liverpool and Ludogorets, but, in the second hand, they’ve managed to leave the historical English team behind and secured a place on the Last 16 stage of the competition.

The Portuguese manager Paulo Sousa has been doing a brilliant job at the helm of the Swiss team, as he not only continued what Murat Yakin had started back in 2012, but at the same time he has even managed to built a more solid team than his predecessor.

It is hard to name any favourites for this particular match; nevertheless, if we have in mind FC Porto’s experience at this sort of competitions, it is fair to grant them some favouritism for the clash at St. Jakob Park.

FC Basel

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - DWLWW

FC Porto

Stats: W-4 L-1 D-0

Recent Form - WWWWL

Possible Line-ups

FC Basel (4-2-3-1) - Vaclik - Xhaka - Samuel - Suchy - Safari - Zuffi - Frei - Hamoudi - Gonzalez - Delgado - Streller

FC Porto  (4-3-3) - Fabiano - Danilo - Maicon - Marcano - Alex Sandro - Casemiro - Herrera - Oliver - Quaresma - Brahimi - Jackson Martinez

Prediction

FC Basel 1 FC Porto 2