Portugal Primeira Liga Odds & Season Preview – Benfica & Porto Co-Favored for Title

• The new Primeira Liga season kicks off on Friday,  August 6th at 2:45 pm EST with Sporting Lisbon vs Vizela
• Benfica and Porto are joint favorites, with last season’s champions Sporting Lisbon listed in third
• We look at possible winners of the Portuguese title, take a look at the odds, and offer the best bet below

The 2021-22 Primeira Liga season kicks off on Friday, August 6th at 3:15 pm EST with Sporting Lisbon vs Vizela, so now is a good time to look at the favorites for the title. The usual suspects of Benfica, Porto and Sporting Lisbon are all up there, and also to look to see if there are any outsiders who could push them for a place in the top three.

We list the odds, contenders, longshots and offer below our best bet for the Portugal Primeira Liga season.

Portugal Primeira Liga 2021-22 Odds

Odds as of August 6 at DraftKings

Sporting Defending Their Title

The new Portuguese league starts this weekend with games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. As ever, it looks likely to boil down to a three-way battle between Benfica, Porto and Sporting Lisbon, after Sporting gatecrashed the party last season and won their first title since 2001-02.

Whether Sporting has what it takes to buck the trend for a second successive season remains to be seen but if their pre-season is anything to go by then they will give it a good shot. In their friendlies, they have shown themselves to be a team bursting full of confidence, still riding the wave of last season’s title win and it will be interesting to see where a flying start to this campaign can take them.

O Capitão que venceu tudo 🏆
'El Patrón' @SebastianCoates 🦁#SportingCP #OndeVaiUmVãoTodos pic.twitter.com/IF3Xzfz6r8

— Sporting CP (@SportingCP) August 5, 2021

Coach Rúben Amorim has managed to keep most of last season’s squad together with, so far, only João Mário leaving ending his loan from Inter and heading to Benfica, while Ricardo Esgaio, Matheus Reis and Rúben Vinagre have been brought in to add depth to the group. The rest of the squad remains the same with another group of talented, hungry youngsters also looking to force their way into Amorim’s plans.

The key to their success is Amorim himself who, at just 36, has managed to put together the most amazing managerial résumé of 48 wins and just 7 defeats in 66 competitive matches with Braga and, now,  Sporting. His biggest challenges this season will be the need to balance his squad with the extra demands of a Champions League campaign minus the surprise factor of last season.

Porto Under Pressure to Deliver

Porto coach Sérgio Conceição may have his critics around the brand of soccer his teams play and his reluctance to play too many of the club’s talented youngsters in his team, but no one can question his ability to produce teams that know how to win games and win titles. With only modest investment in his squad, he has won two titles in the last four seasons and an impressive pre-season suggests a third is not beyond him.

Despite several of their key players being late to return to training after the summer’s European Championships, Porto has produced some excellent pre-season form that included a 2-0 win over French champions Lille. Conceição will be hoping to use this momentum to get off to a quick start, unlike last season where their indifferent early-season form effectively cost them the title.

🔜 Arranque da Segunda Liga#FCPorto #FCPortoB pic.twitter.com/nFt0UMOxGu

— FC Porto (@FCPorto) August 6, 2021

Goals are not likely to be a problem – Porto were top scorers last season –  and with the choice of three outstanding wide players, in Corona, Díaz and Francisco Conceição, and a quality center-forward in Mehdi Taremi they will trouble every single defense they come up against.

Their issue may be keeping things tight in defense where they still rely heavily on 38-year-old Pepe, and where their full-backs both came in for criticism last season. This season may well come down to them getting an improved start and Conceição integrating some of their energetic and talented youngsters.

Primeira Liga Winners

Can Benfica Get Back to Being the Ones to Beat?

Benfica, as always, will be the team to beat and will have been hit hard by losing out to Sporting last season. After reeling off five titles in six seasons between 2014 and 2019, anything other than a Primeira Liga title is regarded as a failure. Therefore the pressure on coach Jorge Jesus is huge this time around as he wrestles off-field politics at the boardroom level with the need to keep together a competitive squad.

🗓️ #LigaPortugalBwin matchweek 2, 3 and 4 fixtures:

🆚 SL Benfica v FC Arouca
🗓 Aug 14, 6pm

🆚Gil Vicente FC v SL Benfica
🗓 Aug 21, 6pm (or 8.30 pm)

🆚 SL Benfica v CD Tondela
🗓 Aug 29, 6pm (tbc)#WeAreBenfica pic.twitter.com/7iBTNPpo77

— SL Benfica (@slbenfica_en) August 5, 2021

Jesus spent a lot of money last summer to no avail but has proved in the recent past that he can put together a squad of expensive, talented players and mold them into a team that can win titles. Now he has to do the same but while under even more pressure. Like Porto, Benfica has come under pressure from their own fans for not bringing through more academy players, like Diogo Gonçalves, to the first-team, so Jesus will also be expected to do, but while still relying heavily on the experience of Nicolas Otamendi and Jan Vertonghen at the back.

Beyond the big three, there are no realistic challengers for the title but Braga is definitely the best of the rest and could get themselves in contention for a European spot. For those who love a huge outsider, Guimaraes may also fancy a crack at a European place.

Best bet: Sporting Lisbon to retain their title (+600)