Porto v Marseille: French resistance will keep score low

Porto 1.9210/11 v Marseille 4.84/1; The Draw 3.613/5
Tuesday 3 November, 20:00
Live on BT Sport Extra

Battle for second heats up

Manchester City seem destined to win Group C, but second place is very much up for grabs.

It's Porto that currently occupy that position. After losing 2-1 at the Etihad to Manchester City in their opening match, they enjoyed a 2-0 win at home to Olympiakos to claim three points. Porto are now ahead of Olympiakos on goal difference.

Another win would put Porto in a very strong position, but they have struggled to find consistency this season. On Friday they lost 3-2 at Pacos de Ferreira, which was their second defeat in the Primeira Liga after six games (W3 D1).

Marseille need at least a draw from this match, having lost both of their games. A late goal saw them defeated 1-0 at Olympiakos and they were then well beaten 3-0 at home by Manchester City. If their form in the Champions League has been concerning, they have been playing well in France. Marseille have only lost one of their eight Ligue 1 games this season (W4 D3), leaving them fifth in the table.

Low scoring match likely

Porto are available at a pretty chunky price of 1.9210/11 to win, but their patchy form is a concern. So too is the fact that Marseille will be the more rested of the two teams, having not had a domestic game over the weekend.

If Porto do win, it's unlikely to be by a big scoreline. Marseille tend to keep things pretty tight. In Marseille's ten matches across all competitions this season, seven have seen less than three goals being scored, with four of those instances coming from five away games. Under 2.5 goals seems likely to land at 1.84/5.