PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: Vincent Aboubakar – Can he fight his way back into Porto’s starting XI?

by Graeme Jackson

Thursday Apr 19, 2018. 13:00

Vincent Aboubakar looks on course to win the Primeira Liga title with Porto this season, but he appears to have fallen out of favour after a lean spell in front of goal.

The Dragons reclaimed control of the Portuguese top flight’s title race with a 1-0 away win over Benfica last weekend, putting them into a two-point lead over the Lisbon giants with four rounds of the season remaining.

Aboubakar, though, only played the final seven minutes of the match, having been dropped from the starting XI by coach Sergio Conceicao.

The Cameroon captain, who has a fine record of 15 goals from 25 starts in the Primeira Liga this season, has struggled to find the back of the net since the turn of the year.

In 2018 he has managed just three goals, his last coming in a 3-1 win over Sporting Braga in early February.

Admittedly, the 26-year-old has also spent some time on the sidelines due to injury, but he will still be itching to return to the kind of form he demonstrated in the first half of the 2017/18 campaign.