There is a regular turnover of coaches regularly in the Jupiler Pro League, but Mbaye Leye has defied the odds to remain at Zulte Waregem. An experienced board are giving their manager time in the role, hoping their trust and patience pay dividends come the end of the season. They are quietly in the last 4 of the cup but sat in the bottom 3, they are in a lot of trouble.

He may remain in his job, but Mbaye Leye is having a difficult season at Waregem. As a former striker, he must be getting frustrated are how many chances are being missed. A pair of home wins against Mechelen and STVV, 2-0, have provided some optimism. There is more hope than ever in midfield as Christian Brüls (255 Pro League appearances) and Ruud Vormer (350 appearance, 63 goals and 5x Champion) strengthened them. Vormer netted against STVV, and has a point to prove to Club Brugge, who froze out one of their greatest icons.

Westerlo have been one of the most surprising teams this season. Jonas De Roeck has got his side playing attractive football and is backing it up with the results. Sat in 7^th, they are still in a spot in the Play-offs. Their strength is going forward where they have found the back of the net in 14 straight games, a run stretching back to early September.

Both teams have picked up a bit of momentum recently and will go for the full 3 points today with goals expected from both sides.

We have reached the halfway point of the 2022/23 Primeira Liga season, and there have been plenty of winners and losers who will either be looking to keep up the momentum or complete a radical overhaul over the next few months. From the winners’ column, Benfica stands out with 13 victories, two draws – one of which came at the weekend in a 2-2 home stalemate against Sporting – as well as a defeat in Braga on December 30. Braga sit four points behind the league leaders as well as a point above defending champions Porto, whilst they maintain an eight-point advantage over Sporting and a 10-point advantage over Casa Pia, who have returned to the top-flight after 83 years and enjoyed a stellar start to the campaign.

Whilst Benfica has been the biggest winner in Portugal so far, the worst side has undoubtedly been Paços de Ferreira. The Beavers began their campaign with three draws and 12 defeats with César Peixoto getting the axe in October following a Taça de Portugal defeat to fourth-tier Vitória de Setúbal, with club legend José Mota returning but failing to stem the tide before being sacked in December.

One year after taking charge midway through the season and securing a comfortable mid-table finish, Peixoto returned to the helm a mere two months after being sacked and secured a 1-1 draw at home against Chaves before leading Paços to their first victory since April 9, with Nigel Thomas’ inswinging free kick putting Paços ahead after a half-hour as Peixoto’s side prevailed with a 1-0 victory at Rio Ave.

Paços have given themselves a major boost and find themselves four points adrift of Marítimo, eight behind Santa Clara, and nine away from safety, but they face a tall task as they attempt to continue their undefeated start to 2023. The Beavers will host Braga, Benfica, and Gil Vicente before opening February with a trip to Portimonense, and their leaky defensive unit that has conceded 30 goals in 16 matches could be ripped apart by a Braga attack featuring the likes of Ricardo Horta, Vitinha and Abel Ruíz. Braga’s Europa League journey has come to an end, with the Arsenalistas set to take on Fiorentina in the Europa Conference League as well as Benfica in the Taça de Portugal quarterfinals, but they nevertheless find themselves hot on the heels of Benfica and have returned from the break with three straight clean sheets and three victories, edging their way past a stubborn Boavista side at the weekend. They have their sights set on a return to the Champions League after 11 years, and maybe, just maybe, a first-ever league title, but before they can dream about eternal greatness, they’re going to have to chew their vegetables and beat the worst side in Portugal – I’m expecting them to do so with a comfortable margin at the Estádio da Mata Real.

Galatasaray beat Alanyaspor 2-1 away from home to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Turkish Cup in midweek. They are top of the Super Lig and have won 11 games in a row in all competitions, 8 of which came in the league. They are building a winning culture and are brimming with confidence, as shown by that hard-fought 2-1 win.

Opponents Antalyaspor were knocked out of the Cup on Tuesday, losing 2-0 to Kayserispor in extra time. They are winless in 5 games in the league, taking just 2 points from a possible 15. The number of injured players and suspensions is posing a real problem for them, with top scorer Haji Wright injured, and midfield linchpin Fernando suspended. They are away from home against the league’s best and most in-form side, so the odds really are stacked against them.

To make matters worse for the visitors, Galatasaray trained with a full squad and have no players suspended. Unless they fail to show up, they should win this game easily, going up against an already struggling side missing both of their best players.

The first Dérbi de Lisboa of the 2022/23 campaign would see Sporting break the deadlock within a half-hour via an own goal from Alexander Bah only for Gonçalo Ramos to even things up 10 minutes later. Pedro Gonçalves restored their lead from the penalty spot after the restart, but Ramos would once again draw Benfica level within 11 minutes as the two sides settled for a draw at the Estádio da Luz. Benfica have taken four points from a potential nine since the resumption of league play, but they nevertheless sit four points clear of Braga atop the table and will be looking to close out January on a strong note as they travel to 16th-placed Santa Clara and 18th-placed Paços de Ferreira.

Mário Silva became the latest Primeira Liga manager to receive the sack after his Santa Clara side opened the year with a 4-0 home defeat to Braga, having taken charge midway through the 2021/22 season and led the Azoreans to safety only to receive his marching orders and be replaced by Jorge Simão. Apart from the 2015/16 campaign with Paços de Ferreira and a 52-game campaign at Boavista from 2017 to 2019, each of Simão’s eight managerial spells have lasted no more than 30 games, with his latest job seeing him return to Paços in the summer of 2021 only to receive the boot in December and be replaced by César Peixoto. Simão began his time in charge of Santa Clara by traveling to Portimonense, with the Azoreans being reduced to 10 men in the 28th minute as Pierre Sagna saw two quick bookings in succession Registering 10 shots to Portimonense’s 24,  they prevailed with their first clean sheet since November 7 and a 0-0 draw in the Algarve. They currently occupy the relegation play-off spot, and and I’m expecting them to suffer a ninth defeat of the season as they prepare to host the league leaders.

Benfica have won seven of their last nine fixtures against the Azoreans, and six out of the last seven meetings between the two sides have featured over 2.5 goals. Whilst they will be without captain Nicolás Otamendi due to suspension, Felipe Morato or Lucas Veríssimo will be expected to slot into central defence alongside António Silva and deal with a Santa Clara attack that has scored just 11 goals in 16 matches. I’m expecting Benfica to remain at least four points clear at the top and prevail with a fairly high-scoring victory at the Estádio de São Miguel.

KV Mechelen play host to Kortrijk on matchday 22 in the Pro League. Important months are ahead for Mechelen manager Steven Defour, and it does not promise to be a quiet season for the former Burnley man in his first managerial role.

Mechelen have not been convincing this season, with sloppy errors continually causing them to lose games, such as the 2-0 defeat last time out against Standard Liege. They create far too few chances, and their possession in the middle of the park is not converted into chances. They are expected to make moves in the January window, especially with a new majority shareholder at the reins, but no moves have been made so far.

Winger Nikola Storm has been struggling this season, having scored 26 goals in his previous two seasons, he has notched just one this term. Should a genuine number 9 arrive at the club, striker Yonas Malede could be moved wide to accommodate, taking Storm out of the starting XI.

Visitors Kortrijk are hopeful about their future with Bernd Storck in charge, and his Bundesliga mentality has been imbued into his squad, with the pressing and distance covered by his team noticeably higher than under any of their previous coaches.

Mechelen is an opponent which should suit this Kortrijk side, they can put pressure on their weak attacking players and overwhelm them in midfield, allowing them to utilise Avenatti’s aerial ability and Selemani’s dribbling to cut through their defence.

Depending on when goals go in, this could either be a cagey affair or a very open and expansive one, but however it shakes out, Kortrijk look like great value here. They have made major strides forward in recent weeks and they have converted promising performances into points.

RKC Waalwijk are out of form at the moment, so we have opposite ends of the form scale here between these two mid-table sides. It’s one win in eight for the hosts who sit in tenth; they were in amongst the sides chasing European play-off places earlier in the campaign, but they have fallen away now. Go Ahead, in eleventh, are one of the surprise packages of the season so far — being unbeaten since the start of September.

I think Go Ahead will stretch their unbeaten run even further here given the threats they have in attack, such as the in-form Bobby Adekanye, who has four goals and three assists in his last six games. The tall and strong Isac Lidberg will occupy some of RKC’s back five, whilst Adekanye and co can work around the space left behind.

RKC have missed the influence of Michiel Kramer and Ilias Bel Hassani in attack. I would be very surprised if Go Ahead lose their excellent run to Joseph Oosting’s men — a draw would be a good result.

After a thrilling double-header on Friday that will see Portimonense and Vizela travel to Arouca and Sporting, Saturday’s triple-header will draw to a close as Vitória de Guimarães host Porto at the Estádio Dom Afonso Henriques.

Porto returned from the World Cup break by thrashing Arouca 5-1 at home before drawing 0-0 to 10-man Casa Pia and bouncing back with a 4-0 win against Arouca in the Taça de Portugal. The defending champions found themselves two goals to the good within 21 minutes via a brace from Wenderson Galeno and added to their lead via goals from Otávio and Mehdi Taremi on either side of the restart as Porto defeated Famalicão 4-1 at the Dragão.

Vitória entered the World Cup break with a 1-0 home win against Marítimo, the latest impressive result in a run of form that would see them win seven matches in all competitions, lose to Sporting, and draw to Arouca and Benfica – the first time Benfica dropped points in the league this season. Since then, they’ve drawn three matches in the Taça da Liga – two of them being lower-tier opponents – and exited the competition in the group stage, before losing 3-0 at Vizela and drawing 0-0 at home to Rio Ave. Having entered halftime with a 2-0 lead in the Dérbi do Minho via goals from Anderson Silva and Jota Silva, Vitória conceded three goals in five minutes as a goal from Vitinha and a brace from Abel Ruiz would see Braga take the lead in the 85th minute and come out with a 3-2 win in the Taça de Portugal Round of 16. They would take the lead within 16 minutes in Barcelos as Anderson Silva broke the deadlock, only to cough up an equalizer before the break to Ali Alipour. Anderson went from hero to zero when he picked up two yellows after halftime, with Fran Navarro firing in a late winner to secure a 2-1 victory for Gil Vicente.

It has been a chaotic start to the season for Vitória, who replaced manager Pepa with rookie coach Moreno a mere nine days before the season opener, with the club celebrating their centenary on September 22 on the back of a hot-and-cold run of form that would see them win three, lose three, draw to Arouca, and exit the Europa Conference League at the qualifiers stage courtesy of Croatian giants Hadjuk Split. An impressive stalemate against Benfica on October 1 would kick off a stellar run of form, but the Conquistadores have yet to win since November 13 and are clinging onto sixth place for dear life. Porto have won each of their seven meetings with Vitória since the start of 2019/20, and I’m expecting them to coast to victory.