Rio Ave hosts Covilha in round 16 of Liga Portugal 2. The match will be played on Friday, December 31st at Estádio do Rio Ave (Vila do Conde)
Rio Ave has played in the cup finals relatively recently. Yes, the Green-Whites lost those matches. Still, they had an experience of playing in the Europa League: since 2014, there have been four starts. The last one was last year when the formidable AC Milan beat Rio Ave only on penalties, and the shootout lasted up to 9-8 in favor of the Rossoneri. Who could have thought then that Rio Ave would play in a lower division next season? But the Green-Whites finished the championship in 16th place and then lost the playoffs for survival in the Primeira Liga. It is clear that the new season is held under the sign of the struggle for the fastest possible return. It's too early to say whether Rio Ave will be able to achieve its goal: there are 27 points after 15 rounds. Only Feirense and Benfica B have more (but the latter will definitely not be promoted).
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Covilha will soon celebrate its centenary. During all this time, there were about a dozen years that Lions of the Mountain managed to spend in the top division. By the way, it even managed to climb to the 5th position at one time. But in recent years, the team has been staying in the 2nd division of the country, and mostly in the lower part of the standings. In the 2020/2021 championship, Covilha took only 13th place. Now the situation is even worse: the team is scoring exactly one point per match on average (15 to 15points in 15 rounds). It is unlikely that Covilha will be relegated directly, as Academica and Varzim look too hopeless. But the Lions may lag behind Farense and go to difficult playout matches. Fortunately, Isaiah’s goal allowed them to beat Varzim in the last round.
So far, Rio Ave has one hundred percent results. The Green-Whites won all five head-to-head matches. They look good at the moment and need points to get into the Primeira Liga. We bet on their victory with a -1 handicap.
Prediction for the match: Rio Ave to win with -1.0 handicap
