Viktoria Plzen vs Porto Prediction: Visitors to edge the battle of strong defences

Three points separate Viktoria Plzen and Porto in the Uefa Europa League heading into their clash at Doosan Arena on Thursday (17:45 GMT, TNT Sports 6). Both teams have been very strong defensively, with the hosts conceding two goals in six matches to Porto's five.

Read on for my Viktoria Plzen vs Porto predictions, aided by the latest match odds and team news.

Team News

Sampson Dweh is unavailable for Viktoria Plzen due to suspension, having picked up his third booking of the league phase in the last match against Panathinaikos.

Vaclav Jemelka was shown a straight red card in the same game, while fellow centre-back Jan Paluska remains sidelined through injury.

Rafiu Durosinmi, Svetozar Markovic and Martin Jedlicka have all departed the club this month, leaving the squad a little light.

Football Odds

Veteran defender Thiago Silva returned to Porto this month and despite impressing in his first couple of appearances of the club, he is unable to feature here as he is not named in their Europa League squad.

Luuk de Jong is still out with a knee injury, while Nehuen Perez and Tomas Perez remain out with Achilles issues.

Zaidu Sanusi is back from competing at the Africa Cup of Nations, so he may be involved on Thursday.

Today's Football Fixtures

Viktoria Plzen vs Porto Odds

Plzen have won two of their six matches in the league phase so far and they are 3/1 to come out on top here.

The hosts have drawn their other four fixtures and the stalemate is priced at 23/10, which has an implied probability of 30.3%.

Porto are 19/20 to claim their fifth victory in the Europa League this season.

Plzen's past three outings in Europe have ended 0-0 and under 1.5 goals is on offer at 21/10.

Match Result & Over/Under 2.5 Goals - Porto & Under @ 3/1

With two strong defences on display here, I predict that goals will be hard to come by on Thursday. The hosts have drawn their last three European fixtures 0-0, as well as conceding just two goals in six appearances.

Porto have been breached on five occasions during the league phase but two of their four victories have been to nil. This will be a tough away trip for the Portuguese outfit, but given the quality that they have in attacking areas, I fancy them to cause problems for this stubborn Plzen defence.

A front three of Borja Sainz, Samu Aghehowa and Pepe is very good for this level and I think it is more than good enough to help Porto claim a third successive victory in the Europa League.

Anytime Goalscorer - Samu Aghehowa @ 6/5

Aghehowa is the figure I am looking at who I believe can make the difference in this game. The Porto front man has had to be patient to get up and running in the Europa League but after getting off the mark from the penalty spot against Nice on matchday five, he followed it up with a brace against Malmo FF last time out.

The striker has 12 goals in 17 Primeira Liga appearances this campaign and he heads into this contest having bagged six goals in seven games across all competitions. I think 6/5 offers decent value for him to strike for the third consecutive Europa League match on Thursday.

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