Wolverhampton Wanderers conclude their pre-season campaign with a fixture versus Portuguese outfit SC Farense on Sunday evening.
This fixture takes place just a day after the Premier League side face Sporting Lisbon, throwing up the possibility of a weakened team squaring off against the second-tier side.
Match preview
On the back of recording victories and being involved in brawls during their friendlies in Spain, Wolves may have felt suitably prepared for the final leg of their pre-season schedule.
However, the knee injury sustained by Raul Jimenez against Besiktas last weekend has thrown a spanner in the works, Bruno Lage being left with no recognised striker with just over a week remaining until the start of the Premier League.
While Lage may publicly insist that he has alternatives to the Mexican, supporters will be intrigued to see how their club try to plug the gap, their overwhelming desire being for a fresh face to arrive at Molineux.
Whether that materialises remains to be seen, but Lage's squad will back themselves to add a fifth pre-season win to their tally, their defeats against Levante and Villarreal B coming with weakened XIs.
When a stronger team was named in Alicante, Wolves hit seven goals without reply against Alaves and Besiktas respectively.
As for Farense, they are currently preparing for a second season in Segunda Liga, their first campaign since relegation being a clear disappointment.
The Lions Of Faro finished down in 11th position, as many as 23 points behind the top three and just five points above the relegation places.
After his appointment at the back end of last year, Vasco Faisca collected eight wins from 19 games, and there is hope that Farense can challenge for promotion this time around.
Farense defeated Mafra by a 3-2 scoreline on July 23, extending their winning streak this summer to three matches.
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Team News
With a game against Sporting preceding this fixture and Wolves possessing a lengthy injury list, it is difficult to predict a starting lineup.
Five players have been dealing with injury issues, but Toti Gomes, Hwang Hee-chan and Chem Campbell have been cleared to return to training.
Backup goalkeeper Matija Sarkic remains unavailable with a minor hamstring injury, but Adama Traore may be in a position to make an appearance after a disrupted pre-season.
Faisca will want to hand game time to many of his new Farense arrivals, the most notable being that of Goncalo Silva who is back in Portuguese football after a spell in Poland with Radomiak.
Much is also expected of former Sheffield Wednesday man Marco Matias after the veteran winger contributed 11 assists for Nacional in the second tier last season.
We say: SC Farense 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
With some of Wolves' fringe players inevitably getting some game time on Sunday, this game could prove to be a closely-fought contest. At a time when Wolves are also lacking a frontline striker, it leaves us to predict a low-scoring draw.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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