Sporting CP cannot await any favours from hosting team Rio Ave in this Liga Portugal fixture. Here's your thorough preview!
- Rio Ave haven’t played a single 0-0 game at home.
- Sporting CP have the most matches over the total-line (14) in Liga Portugal
Rio Ave and Sporting CP should both be in good shape for this meeting, as there's been enough days for both of them to train and rest since their last matches.
Rio Ave form and stats
Rio Ave have collected 13 points from their Liga Portugal home games so far after 4-1-3.
Rio Ave faced defeat in their previous match, away at Vizela (1-3). Rodrigues (midfield) was the top team player in that game with a rating of 7.31/10. Rodrigues hit two key passes, dribled past the opponent 1 of 2 times and had 46 successful passes (of 52 total).
0-0 away at Famalicão before that.Low on goals? Looking at this team's last 11 league games, 9 have contained two goals or less.
The Rio fans would probably like to see some more goals scored at their own stadium in the league, the tally being 9 in 8 matches. Rio Ave have only conceded 7 from their league home games. For more goal stats, check the Statistics tab above.
Sporting CP form and stats
The visitors are W3-D2-L4 on the road this term. That's in the Liga Portugal.
Gonçalves, Morita (2), Reis and Edwards scored in Sporting CP's previous match, the home game against Sporting Braga that ended 5-0. As mentioned above, Sporting CP was the only team on the pitch versus Sporting Braga in their previous game, winning 5-0. This could be a tougher task. Attacker Edwards got a player rating of 8.32 in the game. "Man of the match" Edwards scored one goal, hit five key passes and had 30 successful passes (of 36 total).
The match before that was the League Cup-battle against Porto, a home loss (0-2).
Observe that 11 of this team's 13 latest league rounds have ended with three or more goals.
Sporting CP have scored 12 goals on their travels this season, from 9 away games in the league. Sporting CP struggle to build an impenetrable defensive wall in away matches with a total of 14 goals conceded from these games.
Head 2 Head
Sporting CP have avoided a loss in the last 5 games (3-2-0) against Rio Ave.Sporting CP - Rio 3-0 was the outcome when these sides previously played each other, earlier this season.
Top Goalscorers
  P. Pereira Gonçalves 10 goals |   A. Yakubu 7 goals |  M. Edwards 6 goals |
Rio Ave missing players
Sporting CP missing players
| Rio Ave | Sporting CP | ||||||
| Total | Home | vs | Statistics | Stat | vs | Away | Total |
| 18 | 8 | 2 | Played | P | 3 | 9 | 18 |
| 5 | 4 | 1 | Won | W | 1 | 3 | 11 |
| 6 | 1 | 0 | Drew | D | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 7 | 3 | 1 | Lost | L | 2 | 4 | 5 |
| 18 | 9 | 5 | Scored | S | 3 | 12 | 38 |
| 23 | 7 | 4 | Conceded | C | 4 | 14 | 19 |
| 89% | 100% | 100% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| 50% | 38% | 100% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 67% | 78% | 89% |
| 39% | 25% | 100% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 67% | 67% | 78% |
| 33% | 25% | 100% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 0% | 22% | 33% |
| 11% | 12% | 50% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 0% | 11% | 11% |
| 44% | 38% | 100% | BTTS | BTTS | 67% | 56% | 44% |
| 33% | 38% | 0% | Clean Sheets | C S | 0% | 11% | 33% |
| 33% | 25% | 0% | Failed to Score | F T | 33% | 33% | 22% |
| 4.4 | 4.2 | 4.5 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 8.3 | 6 | 6.9 |
| 5.5 | 5.4 | 7.5 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 3.7 | 3.3 | 2.8 |
| 2.9 | 2.9 | 1 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 3.7 | 4 | 3.1 |
| 3 | 0 | 0 | Red cards | R C | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 10.9 | 11.2 | 11 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 19 | 13.7 | 16.9 |
| 3.2 | 3.6 | 4.5 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 6.7 | 4.4 | 5.9 |
| 31% | 31% | 56% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 15% | 30% | 36% |
| 15.1 | 13.4 | 25 | Shots against (avg) | S A | 9.3 | 11 | 8.7 |
| 4.4 | 3.9 | 9 | Shots on Target against (avg) | S O | 3.3 | 4.6 | 3.4 |
- Rio Ave haven’t played a single 0-0 game at home.
- Sporting CP have scored more than double the goals of Rio Ave.
- Sporting CP have the fewest matches under the total-line (4) in Liga Portugal
- Sporting CP have the most matches over the total-line (14) in Liga Portugal
- Sporting CP have won at least twice as many corners as they have conceded.
- Sporting CP haven’t played a single 0-0 game.
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Benfica | 19 | 16 | 2 | 1 | 48 | 12 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 29 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 19 | 4 | 36 | 50 |
| 2 | Porto | 18 | 13 | 3 | 2 | 43 | 11 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 28 | 5 | 10 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 15 | 6 | 32 | 42 |
| 3 | Sporting Braga | 18 | 13 | 1 | 4 | 39 | 18 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 5 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 24 | 13 | 21 | 40 |
| 4 | Sporting CP | 18 | 11 | 2 | 5 | 38 | 19 | 9 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 26 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 12 | 14 | 19 | 35 |
| 5 | Casa Pia | 18 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 18 | 17 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 9 | 1 | 30 |
| 6 | Vitoria Guimaraes | 18 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 17 | 20 | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 7 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 13 | -3 | 27 |
| 7 | Arouca | 18 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 22 | 28 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 15 | 15 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 13 | -6 | 26 |
| 8 | Vizela | 18 | 7 | 3 | 8 | 22 | 18 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 12 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 11 | 4 | 24 |
| 9 | Boavista | 17 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 20 | 27 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 15 | 15 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 12 | -7 | 24 |
| 10 | Chaves | 18 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 17 | 23 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 15 | -6 | 22 |
| 11 | Rio Ave | 18 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 18 | 23 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 7 | 10 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 16 | -5 | 21 |
| 12 | Famalicão | 18 | 6 | 3 | 9 | 17 | 23 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 8 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 15 | -6 | 21 |
| 13 | Portimonense | 18 | 6 | 2 | 10 | 15 | 25 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 8 | 16 | -10 | 20 |
| 14 | Estoril | 17 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 16 | 22 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 12 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 10 | -6 | 19 |
| 15 | Gil Vicente | 18 | 5 | 3 | 10 | 18 | 26 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 11 | 17 | -8 | 18 |
| 16 | Santa Clara | 18 | 3 | 5 | 10 | 12 | 23 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 15 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 8 | -11 | 14 |
| 17 | Marítimo | 18 | 3 | 4 | 11 | 11 | 33 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 10 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 23 | -22 | 13 |
| 18 | Pacos de Ferreira | 19 | 2 | 3 | 14 | 12 | 35 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 7 | 20 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 15 | -23 | 9 |
