2026/2027 season

Primeira Liga

Team page

Primeira Liga · Team page

SC Braga

Head coach: Carlos Vicens · 4-3-3, d'après le onze le plus utilisé par Carlos Vicens cette saison selon BeSoccer (page consultée le 01/09/2026), avec Bernardo Fontes dans les buts — cohérent avec les propres explications de Vicens sur son choix de gardien (A Bola, 30/07/2026, voir « relation »).

Rank

9th

Pts

11

P

7

Form

🟡

The essentials at a glance

The summary of this page: estimated level of play, form trend and qualitative verdict. For the details, head to the other tabs.

Editors' ratings

5/10

Attack

7/10

Defence

5/10

Form

7/10

Confidence / mood

Current risk:High

9th with 11 pts from 7 matches: 3 wins, 2 draws, 2 defeats.

8 goals scored, 8 conceded.

The Sporting Braga debuted this Thursday in the league phase of the League Football Conference with a 3-0 defeat at home in Copenhagen, in play of the inaugural journey of the competition.

RTP Desporto · 15 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

Sporting de Braga today begins its first participation in the League Conference league phase, with a visit to the Copenhagen Danes, at the stake of the inaugural day of the competition.

RTP Desporto · 15 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

The Torreense showed overcoming, but it was not enough, already Braga had a heavy defeat.

zerozero · 16 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

Usually the fourth force of Portuguese football in European competitions, SC Braga started participating in the regular phase - in absolute debut at this stage by points - of the Conference League with a defeat on the ground of one of the opponents, in theory, more complicated that will face in the six days of the third race of the Old Continent.

zerozero · 16 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

How the team has played recently

Match-by-match results, record and rhythm of the current season.

Latest matches

Lvs Sporting Clube de Portugal (H) · 1-3

Dvs CD Santa Clara (A) · 0-0

Wvs GD Estoril Praia (H) · 1-0

Lvs CF Estrela da Amadora (A) · 1-2

Wvs FC Alverca (A) · 2-1

WWWDDLL

8 scored / 8 conceded over 7 matches played

Rest: 9 days since the last match · 1 match played in the last 15 days

Home form

2W - 0D - 1L

Away form

1W - 2D - 1L

Statistics

Computed from this season's scores, every time the page is shown.

Goals scored per match

1.0

Goals conceded per match

1.2

At home

2 scored · 3 conceded in 2 matches

Away

3 scored · 3 conceded in 3 matches

Over 2.5 goals

3 of 5

Both teams score

3 of 5

Clean sheets

2 of 5

Failed to score

1 of 5

Cumulative points vs league average

Not enough matchdays recorded yet for this curve — history builds up with every standings refresh.

How SC Braga play

System, playing identity, and what sets the team apart at both ends of the pitch.

Playing identity

Preferred system

4-3-3, d'après le onze le plus utilisé par Carlos Vicens cette saison selon BeSoccer (page consultée le 01/09/2026), avec Bernardo Fontes dans les buts — cohérent avec les propres explications de Vicens sur son choix de gardien (A Bola, 30/07/2026, voir « relation »).

Philosophy

Carlos Vicens emphasises a collective “identity” rather than a fixed system number: around the Conference League rounds (Železničar Pančevo in late July, Dínamo Minsk in mid-August 2026), the Portuguese press (A Bola, Record) attributed to him an emphasis on “energia e contundência” and offensive “dinamismo” — phrasing taken from article headlines we were unable to open in full (direct access refused). Element verified in the full text of one article: after the 4-0 win over Železničar (30/07/2026), Vicens judged that the team had “melhorou no principal, como na condição física”, referring to a different pre-season preparation “por ter de se competir” from the outset on several fronts (source: A Bola, 30/07/2026).

Attacking strengths

3 goals scored in just 2 matches played (1.5 goals per game on average), with the club having had several league fixtures postponed because of its heavy European schedule. After the 1-0 win in the derby against Vitória SC (31/08), head coach Carlos Vicens himself judged his side to have room for improvement going forward: “Na área temos de ter um pouco mais de finura a definir” (maisfutebol.iol.pt, 31/08/2026).

Defensive solidity

2 goals conceded in 2 matches, one of the best defensive averages in the league on this small sample (Flashscore, table checked on 01/09/2026).

Pressing

Transitions

StrengthDefensive solidity across the 2 matches played (3:2, 2 wins). Squad strengthened in the off-season (4 signings according to Flashscore: Bernardo Fontes, Diogo Travassos, Denis Huseinbasic, Gabriel Silva) with the return of João Moutinho. European campaign positive so far: qualification for the next round of the Europa Conference League at the expense of Zeleznicar Pancevo, then an advantage taken over Dinamo Minsk (1-0 first-leg win at the Pedreira, A Bola, 11/08/2026).

WeaknessLack of offensive sharpness flagged by the coach himself after the derby (“more finesse in the box”). Very busy schedule between the league and European competition, which explains the low number of matches played (2 of 4) and creates a risk of fatigue for the squad — Vicens has spoken of the need for squad depth to manage this dense schedule.

The mood around the club, and who is missing

Internal climate, relationship with the supporters, and known absences before the next match.

Mood

Squad confidence

Momentum remains good despite an unbalanced schedule: two wins in two league matchdays, qualification for the Conference League league phase secured against Austria Vienna, and a Minho derby won 1-0. The window delivered a signing of standing in young Spaniard Tommy Marqués, prised from FC Barcelona for €11m. The UEFA list was only lightly adjusted, a sign of an already settled squad. The injury list nonetheless remains heavy, with Sikou Niakaté still recovering and captain Ricardo Horta, for whom the club had announced two to three weeks out on 19 August.

Coach / players / board relationship

After the 4-0 win over Železničar Pančevo (30/07/2026), Carlos Vicens justified starting back-up goalkeeper Bernardo Fontes ahead of Hornicek (then reported to be close to Newcastle) purely on merit shown in training: “Optei pelo Bernardo Fontes, porque treinou bem, foi uma surpresa boa para mim e mereceu este prémio”. He also refused to consider Hornicek as having left the squad as long as no official information confirmed it: “Não me despedi, porque ele ainda é jogador do SC Braga. Não tenho nenhuma informação que indique o contrário” (source: A Bola, 30/07/2026, article opened and verified). No element found regarding his relationship with the club's board.

Mood with the supporters

On 9 July 2026 the club completed a renumbering process for its members, which ended in a historic record: 29,713 sócios, against 15,642 at the previous count in 2020 — almost double (abola.pt and maisfutebol.iol.pt, 09/07/2026). The renewal rate among existing members is high, around 83 to 85% depending on the source (slight discrepancy between the two outlets), and the club highlights a rejuvenation of its base: close to 70% of sócios are 35 or under. The new digital cards were made available in the week following the announcement, with physical cards following in August. No data on average attendance at the Estádio Municipal de Braga (a Pedreira) for the first 2 home matches of 2026/27 has been found at this stage.

Pressure on the head coach

No public questioning: Carlos Vicens has been in charge since 28 May 2025 (official announcement, maisfutebol.iol.pt), under a three-season contract running until summer 2028 according to A Bola (21/05/2025).

Club objectives

Carlos Vicens has already met the European objective he set himself by reaching the Conference League league phase; it is now about making an impact there, with a schedule opening in Copenhagen on 15 October and closing at home against Egnatia on 17 December. In the league, the club mainly has to make up its games in hand, with only two of four matchdays played. Tommy Marqués's arrival, combined with a €60m buy-back option retained by Barcelona, also shows an openly stated strategy of getting value from young profiles with high potential. Keeping a list B stocked with seven club-trained players, including Diego Rodrigues, confirms the space left for the academy.

Recent internal tensions

No internal tension reported at this stage.

Absences

InjuredSikou Niakaté — Long-term absence, recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon; still sidelined ahead of hosting Vitória SC (matchday 4, 30-31/08/2026). Consistent sources: Jornal O Minho (30/08/2026, comments from Carlos Vicens) and Sports Mole (29/08/2026).

DoubtfulBright Arrey-Mbi — Thigh problem, not used in the last three matches before matchday 4 (30-31/08/2026). Consistent sources: Jornal O Minho (30/08/2026) and Sports Mole (29/08/2026).

DoubtfulRicardo Horta — Muscle issue, having missed several consecutive matches before matchday 4 (30-31/08/2026). Consistent sources: Jornal O Minho (30/08/2026) and Sports Mole (29/08/2026).

InjuredGorby — Named as a confirmed injury by head coach Carlos Vicens ahead of hosting Vitória SC (matchday 4, 30-31/08/2026). Details of the injury not specified. Single source: Jornal O Minho, 30/08/2026 (to be confirmed elsewhere).

DoubtfulJonas Wind — Summer signing who has yet to play since arriving; still absent before matchday 4 (30-31/08/2026), precise reason not detailed. Single source: Sports Mole, 29/08/2026 (to be confirmed elsewhere).

DoubtfulHuseinbasic — Pain that kept him out of a match in Austria, status to be assessed before matchday 4 (30-31/08/2026). Single source: Jornal O Minho, 30/08/2026 (to be confirmed elsewhere).

Before kick-off

What to know before the next match: statistical form, qualitative analysis, and a computed estimate of the 1/X/2 probabilities.

Next match

SC Braga — Gil Vicente FC

At homeMonday 19 October at 21:15Matchday 2

It's tomorrow. Kick-off time confirmed by the league. Paris time · football-data.org fixtures.

Prediction, odds and form of both teams →

What the press says

No preview found for this fixture. The press mostly covers the big games, and usually the day before.

Prediction

EstimateSC Braga — Gil Vicente FC

36 %

1 · SC Braga

31 %

X · draw

33 %

2 · Gil Vicente FC

In-house calculation, from this page's standings data alone: 7 matches played by SC Braga, 7 matches by Gil Vicente FC. Confidence: medium

The formula, in plain words — with this match's figures

League average. 195 goals scored over 142 team-matches played (18 teams taken into account), i.e. μ = 1.37 goal scored per team per match. This is the reference point: everything that follows is expressed relative to it.
Attacking and defensive strengths. Goals scored (or conceded) per match, divided by μ. 1.00 = exactly average; in defence, above 1.00 means “concedes more than average”.
TeamGoalsRawKept
SC Braga — attack8 in 7 matches0.830.91
SC Braga — defence8 in 7 matches0.830.91
Gil Vicente FC — attack6 in 7 matches0.620.80
Gil Vicente FC — defence5 in 7 matches0.520.74
The “Kept” column is the result of shrinkage towards the mean: weight = P / (P + 6), i.e. 0.54 for SC Braga and 0.54 for Gil Vicente FC. The rest of the weight goes to the league average. This is what stops a lone 5-0 from producing an attack at 3.3 times the average — and hence a 95% probability.
Home advantage (γ). Measured on the league itself: 1.20 goal scored on average by the host against 1.49 by the visitor, over the 45 fixtures present in each team's last 5 matches. Raw ratio 0.81; shrunk towards 1 (weight 0.43, on the log of the ratio) then capped at 1.25 → γ = 1.00. Shrinkage goes towards 1, i.e. no advantage at all: while the sample is small, the model does not assert a home advantage it cannot measure.
Venue correction, specific to each team. Drawn from the home/away split: points per match at the venue concerned are compared to points per match over all fixtures, with stronger shrinkage (weight = P / (P + 8)) and a bound of ±12%.
SC Braga at home: 2.00 pts/match versus 1.57 overall over 3 matches → ×1.074
Gil Vicente FC away: 1.33 pts/match versus 1.57 overall over 3 matches → ×0.959
Expected goals. One side's attack is set against the other's defence. γ applies to the host only: applying it the other way round too would count the home advantage twice.
λ_{SC Braga} = 1.37 × 0.91 × 0.74 × 1.00 × 1.074 = 1.00
λ_{Gil Vicente FC} = 1.37 × 0.80 × 0.91 × 0.959 = 0.96
Poisson grid. Probability of every exact score from 0-0 to 8-8, assuming the two goal totals are independent, then adding up the cells: home win 35.4%, draw 31.3%, away win 33.3% — displayed rounded to whole numbers so that they add up to exactly 100. Most likely exact score in the grid: 0-0 (only 14.2%, which says enough about how unpredictable an exact score is).

Limits of this model — they are not anecdotal.

It only knows goals and a venue. Neither absences, suspensions, line-ups, fatigue, stakes, weather nor club context enter the calculation — while the other tabs of this page show that they matter.
The assumption that the two goal totals are independent is false in reality: it slightly underestimates tight scores, hence the draw.
γ is measured over a rolling window (each team's last 5 matches), not over the whole season.
The shrinkage constants (6, 60, 8) and the bounds are choices, not measurements. They were tuned to be cautious early in the season; they were not calibrated on a results history, as none is available here.
No after-the-fact evaluation has been made: at this stage, nobody knows whether this model is better or worse calibrated than another.

What other sources say

No external source has been collected for this match. That is the normal state: readings are taken by hand, and an empty box is better than an unverified figure.

This block shows probability estimates, not predictions, and carries no advisory value. The in-house estimate is the result of a formula applied to a small sample; the figures from external sources are reproduced as they were collected, without their method having been verified.

The full squad

The professional squad by position, captain marked with an armband.

Goalkeepers

Tiago Sá
Bernardo Fontes
João Carvalho
Romário Cunha

Defenders

Victor Gomez
Chissumba
Niakaté
Leonardo Lelo
Diogo Travassos
Vítor Carvalho
Adrian Barišić
Bright Arrey-Mbi
Jónatas Noro
Yannis da Rocha
Adrian Bajrami
Gustaf Lagerbielke

Midfielders

Gorby
João Moutinho
Diego Rodrigues
Denis Huseinbasic
António Gil
Luisinho

Forwards

Gabri Martínez
Ricardo HortaC
Fran Navarro
Dorgeles
El Ouazzani
Pau Victor
Gabriel Silva

Squad last verified on 1 Sep 2026 — source: Flashscore.pt (article “SC Braga regressa com 26 jogadores e quatro contratações”) and Worldfootball.net, squad cross-checked across both sources.

What has been said recently

Chronological feed of verified information about the club.

rss17 Oct 2026

Opinion - Quo Vadis SC Braga

Source: zerozero

rss16 Oct 2026

Worm walker. The 3 goals of Braga's fake debut in Denmark

Source: Notícias ao Minuto — Desporto

rss15 Oct 2026

12:30 pm Benfica, Torreense and Braga with European honors today

Source: RTP Desporto

rss14 Oct 2026

"Sp. Braga has five points subtracted by the VAR"

Source: Notícias ao Minuto — Desporto

rss13 Oct 2026

Benfica, Torreense and Sporting Braga already know referees in Europe

Source: Notícias ao Minuto — Desporto

rss13 Oct 2026

Sporting Braga opens League Europe Conference in Copenhagen

Source: Notícias ao Minuto — Desporto

Transfers2 Sep 2026

Spanish midfielder Tommy Marqués, 19, a La Masia graduate, has joined SC Braga from FC Barcelona for €11m, a fee that could reach €12m with bonuses. The Catalan club retain 20% of any resale and a buy-back option set at €60m. He is on the list A registered for the Conference League.

Source: A Bola

Club2 Sep 2026

Diego Rodrigues, scorer in the Minho derby, is 21 and was born in Taipas, in the municipality of Guimarães. He started at seven at Caçadores das Taipas, where his father Ronaldo had played, then came through Vitória's academy before joining Braga in 2020 via Palmeiras, a Braga satellite club. He had already scored against Austria Vienna in the Conference League play-off.

Source: A Bola

Other2 Sep 2026

Luís Godinho has been appointed to referee Alverca v SC Braga, with Paulo Barradas on VAR.

Source: Maisfutebol

Transfers2 Sep 2026

Left-back Wdowik will not return to Braga: he is continuing his loan at the Polish club Jagiellonia Białystok.

Source: Maisfutebol

Transfers1 Sep 2026

SC Braga have officially loaned left-back Leonardo Lelo to UD Almería (Spain's LaLiga2) until the end of the 2026-2027 season, with a purchase option valued at around €3m. Cristiano Ronaldo is a co-owner of the Andalusian club, but the player is not joining Al-Nassr, contrary to what a potentially confusing headline might suggest.

Source: A Bola

Transfers1 Sep 2026

Midfielder João Marques has been loaned out by SC Braga to Torreense (Portugal's second division).

Source: Maisfutebol (IOL)

Institutional31 Aug 2026

Involved in Europe, SC Braga had to complete their registrations as early as 2 September for the UEFA list, when the Portuguese window remained open until 4 September.

Source: Maisfutebol

Club31 Aug 2026

SC Braga won 1-0 against Vitória SC in the Minho derby on 31 August 2026, thanks to a goal from Diego Rodrigues (79th), who had come on seven minutes earlier. Gabriel Silva was offensively active for Braga.

Source: Maisfutebol (IOL)

Club31 Aug 2026

After the derby win, head coach Carlos Vicens acknowledged a lack of offensive precision in the first half (“na área temos de ter um pouco mais de finura a definir”) while praising his team's defensive intensity. He also reaffirmed his wish to keep key players Vítor Carvalho and Fran Navarro, judging a squad with multiple options necessary to manage a dense schedule.

Source: Maisfutebol (IOL)

European competition30 Aug 2026

SC Braga's European schedule is set: a trip to Copenhagen on 15 October, Gent at home on 22 October, a trip to AGF Aarhus on 5 November, KuPS Kuopio at home on 26 November, a trip to Brann on 10 December and a home finish against Egnatia on 17 December.

Source: Golo FM

News last verified on 18 Oct 2026. Sources: sports press (L'Équipe, Le Parisien, Foot Mercato, regional press…) and official club websites — see the link on each item.

Editorial content (playing style, mood, absences, external prediction sources) last verified on 3 Sep 2026. The standings/form data above are refreshed automatically — as is the 1/X/2 estimate, recomputed on every view.