Gameweek 22 in the Primeira Liga will get underway at Estadio Municipal 22 de Junho, where Famalicao will play host to Rio Ave on Friday evening.
The hosts head into this match in 10th place in the league standings, with 23 points after 20 matches, while the visitors are four places and two points behind them.
Match preview
© Reuters
With the bottom half of the Primeira Liga table still very tightly packed, Famalicao will know the importance of bouncing back to winning ways here following three consecutive matches without victory.
Last weekend, Vila Nova saw more points slip through the cracks when Farense scored a stoppage-time equaliser to cancel out an early Sorriso strike, marking the third successive league match that Fama have conceded in the final 10 minutes of regulation time.
With that result, Joao Pedro Sousa's side have failed to win nine of their last ten matches in all competitions (W1 D4 L5), with a solitary 2-0 victory over Casa Pia at the start of the year being the only exception.
At home, Famalicenses are winless since December and have taken a total of 12 points from a possible 27, which sees them hold the league's fifth-worst home record, though they have played a game less than all the sides around them.
These sides played to a 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture back in September, which extended Fama's record against this opponent to seven matches unbeaten, although only two of those ended in victory while the other five all finished level.
© Reuters
Meanwhile, the 2023-24 season has been a tale of two halves for Rio Ave, who got the campaign underway very poorly, managing just five points from their first nine league games, which saw them firmly set in the relegation zone.
However, a 2-0 win over Boavista at the start of November seemed to finally get them into gear, and since then, Vilacondenses lost only two of their next 12 leading up to this match, along with three wins and seven draws.
The most recent of those victories came last weekend, when they edged Casa Pia to a 1-0 win courtesy of an Abdul-Aziz Yakubu goal two minutes from time, which also extended their recent unbeaten run to four matches following three successive draws.
While Luis Freire will be pleased with his side's uptick in form of late, he will be looking to find major improvements in their away performances as they are the only side in the top flight to have not won a single game on the road this season, recording five draws and five losses in 10 outings.
Still, the visitors have the momentum coming into this fixture, and that will give them tremendous confidence to bring an end to their winless run against this opponent, which dates all the way back to August 2019.
Team News
© Reuters
Gustavo Assuncao returned to the squad last weekend after his red card against Braga and will be pushing for a place in the starting 11 in this match after coming off the bench against Farense.
Sorriso made the most of his opportunity in the starting lineup by scoring the only goal for Famalicao last week and could receive the nod again for this match, potentially in place of Jose Luis Rodriguez.
Freire has not tinkered too much with his backline recently, and we are likely to see that continue here with Josue Sa, Aderllan Santos and Miguel Nobrega expected to make up the defensive trio in front of Jhonatan.
Emmanuel Boateng is the side's top scorer this season, with five goals to his name and could return to the attack after missing out on last week's 1-0 victory at home against Casa Pia.
Famalicao possible starting lineup:
Junior; Nathan, De Haas, Mihaj, Moura; Youssouf, Topic; Chiquinho, Sa, Sorriso; Cadiz
Rio Ave possible starting lineup:
Jhonatan; Sa, Santos, Nobrega; Costinha, Oudrhiri, Teixeira, Yakubu, Ronaldo; Boateng, Graca
We say: Famalicao 1-1 Rio Ave
Historically, matches between these sides are generally very level contests, and there is little to suggest that we should expect anything different in this match. This will likely be a tight and tactical encounter, and we feel there will be nothing to split these two at the final whistle.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Devesh Jaganath
