Overview
Porto is experiencing a convincing 2025-2026 season. The "Dragons" lead the Portuguese Liga with a 7-point gap from Sporting Lisbon, reached the National Cup semi-finals and have qualified for the Europa League knockout round.
Although they have secured a ticket to the next round, Francesco Farioli's team still has an important goal of entering the top 8 to avoid playing in the play-offs. After 7 matches, Porto is ranked ninth in the group stage standings with 14 points (4 wins, 2 draws, 1 loss), inferior to the top 8 just because of goal difference.
Porto currently has the same 14 points as Real Betis in eighth place and is only 3 points behind Freiburg (third). This means that if they win in the last round, Porto will have a great opportunity to break into the top 8, although other results still need to take place in a favorable direction.
Current form is also a great support for the home team. Porto entered the match with a streak of 10 wins and 1 draw in the last 11 appearances, creating confidence for the upcoming goal.
In the opposite direction, Rangers no longer have much motivation in terms of achievements when they are definitely eliminated. The Scottish representative went through a forgettable European campaign. They did not win a Champions League ticket, then only won 1, drew 1 and lost 5 in the Europa League. With 4 points and 31st place, Rangers are 4 points behind Celtic (24th), an immeasurable gap.
However, Danny Rohl still expects his team to maintain their excitement. Rangers are on a streak of 8 consecutive wins in all competitions. This is a clear transformation compared to the early stage of the season, when they only won 11/32 matches and had a number of losses and draws at 11.
Personnel situation
Luuk de Jong and Nehuen Perez are having injury problems, so the possibility of playing for Porto in this match is still open.
After a fairly easy 3-0 victory over Gil Vicente last weekend, coach Francesco Farioli is likely to keep the starting lineup. Thiago Silva is definitely absent because he just joined the team at the beginning of this month and is not qualified to play.
Therefore, Jakub Kiwior can continue to play alongside Jan Bednarek in the center of the defense, while Martin Fernandes and Alberto Costa are expected to guard the two wings.
On the other side, Rangers do not have Bailey Rice, Connor Barron, Derek Cornelius, Dujon Sterling and John Souttar due to injury.
Two new signings Andreas Skov Olsen and Tochi Chukwuani just made official debuts last weekend, but could not participate because they were not registered. This opens up opportunities to start for Djeidi Gassama and Mohammed Diomande.
Expected lineup:
Costa, Costa, Bednarek, Kiwior, Fernandes, Froholdt, Rosario, Veiga, Pepe, Aghehowa, Sainz.
Butland, Tavernier, Djiga, Fernandez, Meghoma, Raskin, Diomande, Gassama, Aasgaard, Moore, Miovski.
The match between Porto and Rangers takes place at 3:00 AM on January 30 (Vietnam time).
