Next Tuesday, 10th of March 2015, the two-time European champions FC Porto will measure forces with the Swiss side FC Basel at Estádio do Dragão for the second-leg of the Last 16 stage of the UEFA Champions League. After the 1-1 draw at St. Jakob-Park on the first-leg, the Portuguese team has a slight advantage to grant a place on the next stage of the tournament, but they will certainly need to dig deep in order to achieve that.

FC Porto have been enjoying an excellent moment on both domestic and international competitions recently and, since their defeat at Madeira against Maritimo later last January, they have embarked on an eight match run without a single defeat.

After overcoming their all-time rivals, Sporting CP, at Estádio do Dragão last weekend, FC Porto sealed another excellent win against SC Braga on Friday. It wasn’t by any means an easy match but the Dragons were always the best team and granted the three points thanks to a goal from Cristian Tello, who sent home an excellent assist by the Cameroonian international Vincent Aboubakar. The Spanish winger, who arrived on loan from Barcelona last Summer and experienced several adaptation difficulties, is now having the time of his life at Porto, as he scored four goals on the last two matches.

The new FC Porto’s manager, Julen Lopetegui, brought in a new winning mentality to team and, at the same time, brought the supporters together by creating an excellent atmosphere around the team. For the upcoming decisive match against FC Basel, the Basque-born manager will not be able to rely on the contribution of the team’s sharpshooter Jackson Martínez, who is currently sidelined due to injury, and it is also not likely that the Spanish wonderboy Oliver Torres will recover in time for the clash.

As for FC Basel, the Swiss team seems to be already recovered from their recent upset against Young Boys two weeks ago. Paulo Sousa’s boys were literally smashed during their travel to Bern but the Portuguese manager has managed to rally his troops and they have already embarked on a three-match victorious run. Last weekend, they have cruised over FC Thun by 3-0 and cemented their position at the top of the Swiss football league table.

Regardless of FC Basel’s recent good results, FC Porto are favourites for next Tuesday’s match since they will play in front of their enthusiastic supporters and at the same time they tend to be very strong when playing at home.

FC Porto

Stats: W-4 L-0 D-1

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FC Basel

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

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Possible Line-ups

FC Porto  (4-3-3) - Fabiano - Danilo - Maicon - Marcano - Alex Sandro - Casemiro - Herrera - Evandro - Tello - Brahimi - Aboubakar

FC Basel (4-2-3-1) - Vaclik - Xhaka - Samuel - Schar - Safari - Zuffi - Frei - Elmeny - Gonzalez - Gashi - Streller

Prediction

FC Porto 1 FC Basel 0