Benfica expected to challenge Rio Ave at their own home

Rio Ave and Benfica 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

7-1-4 (win-draw-lost) are the Liga Portugal numbers at home for Rio Ave so far this season. Nine out of nine points from the last three home games for Rio Ave, and the home supporters are ready to scream their lungs out to keep the winning streak alive.

Rio Ave are returning here after visiting Santa Clara and winning with a 2-0 scoreline. Ruiz scored the goal(s). Midfielder Rodrigues was the best player on the team with a rating of 8.03 (out of ten) in that game. Rodrigues hit four key passes, dribled past the opponent 1 of 1 times and had 59 successful passes (of 67 total).

No one expects the home team to get anything from this game. It's not often a home team are such massive outsiders as in this game. We've searched our database for matches where Rio Ave had similar winning odds as today, and found 4 games. In these, the hosts won 1, drew 0 and lost 3. Betting people looking at handicaps might be interested to know that Rio lost 2 similar games by at least two goals.

It should be considered that a glance at the 11 most recent league games shows that 9 of them qualified as a both teams to score: NO result (only one or none of the sides scored).

Rio Ave has scored 14 league goals at home this season, in 12 matches. Rio Ave are not conceding a lot of goals here at Estádio do Rio Futebol Clube in the league, averaging less than one per game. The total is 9 from 12 matches. There's been improvement defensively lately, as only 1 of these goals has been conceded in their last three home matches.

Benfica form and stats

Benfica have been very strong on the road so far with a massive 31 points collected from 12 Liga Portugal games. 10 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat is the record so far. In general it has been a productive period now for Benfica as they haven't lost any of their last eleven games.

Benfica go into this game after a win, the home game against Vitoria Guimaraes that ended 5-1. As you can tell from the results above, Benfica was very dominant against Vitoria Guimaraes, winning the match with a scoreline that even the finest fortune teller couldn't predict. 5-1 (!) with Ramos, Silva and Mário (2) providing the goals. Which player has scored three games in a row for the away side? The answer is Mário and that is quite the accomplishment! The attacker Ramos got a match rating of 7.91 in that game. Ramos scored one goal, served one assist, hit one key pass and dribled past the opponent 2 of 4 times.

Highlight this: 9 of the last 12 league matches involving this team have had only one (or no) team scoring (Both Teams to Score NO in sports betting terms).

Benfica's manager Schmidt has created a great defensive setup working very nicely in away games with only {4 conceded goals}. You can find more goal stats on the Statistics tab above. There's been improvement defensively lately, as only 0 of these goals has been conceded in their last three away matches.

Head 2 Head

The dueling parties have fought earlier this season: Benfica - Rio Ave 4-2.

Top Goalscorers

J. Naval da Costa Eduardo 17 goals

R. Fernandes Ferreira da Silva 6 goals

Rio Ave missing players

Benfica missing players