📏 Form Guide

Rio Ave

DWLDLW ⚖

Rio Ave will be looking for another win after the 3-1 Primeira Liga triumph vs Casa Pia.

In that match, Rio Ave had 51% possession and 12 shots at goal with 8 on target. For Rio Ave, the goalscorers were Luiz (54', 86') and Brandon Aguilera (62'). For their opponents, Casa Pia had 15 shots at goal with 5 on target. Claudio (83') was the scorer for Casa Pia.

It’s been seldom in recent games where Rio Ave have managed to hold out for a full 90 minutes. The facts show that Rio Ave have been scored against in 6 of their previous 6 clashes, giving up 10 goals during that time.

Coming into this clash, Rio Ave have not beaten Benfica in their previous 19 league games. That has got to hurt.

Benfica

DWWWDW 📈

Benfica go into this game following on from a 3-1 Primeira Liga win as they beat Estoril in their most recent match.

In that game, Benfica managed 51% possession and 20 shots on goal with 3 of them on target. The only player on the scoresheet for Benfica was Vangelis Pavlidis (34', 45', 80'). Estoril got 9 shots on goal with 4 of them on target. Carvalho (45') scored for Estoril.

In their last 6 clashes, Benfica have helped themselves to the sum of 13 goals. Benfica have also scored on each one of those occasions. Over that period, their defenders have had 4 goals go against them. Such a pattern isn’t assured to be sustained into this game, of course.

Taking a look at their past results, Benfica:

• have not lost to Rio Ave in away games against them for the last 9 matches in the league. What an away run they have had against them.
• are unbeaten in their last 16 league matches away from home. Amazing.

↔️ Head to head

Looking over their past head to head results going back to 02/04/2023 shows that these encounters have not been good ones for Rio Ave. They have not been able to register any victories whatsoever while Benfica have simply been better than them, getting wins in 67% of those ties.

A total of 20 goals were scored between them throughout the course of those matches, with 5 for Rio Grande and 15 netted by Benfica. This gives an average number of goals per game equal to 3.33.

The previous league meeting between these clubs was Primeira Liga match day 1 on 23/09/2025 which finished with the scoreline of Benfica 1-1 Rio Ave.

On that day, Benfica had 69% possession and 19 attempts on goal with 7 of them on target. Their only player to score was Heorhii Sudakov (86').

At the other end, Rio Ave got 4 shots at goal with 2 on target. Luiz (91') was the scorer.

The referee was Sérgio Guelho.

📰 Team News: Rio Ave

Omar Richards (Knee injury) and Theofanis Bakoulas (Cruciate ligament tear) aren’t available for Rio Ave manager Sotiris Silaidopoulos.

It’s our opinion that Rio Grande look set to opt for a 3-4-3 formation this time, utilising Cezary Miszta, Francisco Petrasso, Jakub Brabec, Nelson Abbey, Marios Vrousai, Andreas Ntoi, Brandon Aguilera, Joao Tome, André Luiz, Clayton and Dario Spikic.

📰 Team News: Benfica

Benfica manager José Mourinho has multiple availability issues to deal with. Dodi Lukébakio (Broken ankle), Henrique Araújo (Muscle injury) and Alexander Bah (Cruciate ligament tear) won’t be making appearances.

From our viewpoint, Benfica could decide to make use of a 4-2-3-1 lineup using Anatolii Trubin, Amar Dedić, Nicolas Otamendi, António Silva, Samuel Dahl, Richard Rios, Manuel Jorge Silva, Gianluca Prestianni, Leandro Barreiro, Georgiy Sudakov and Vangelis Pavlidis.

💡 Prediction

In this game, Benfica should create enough chances to score more than one against Rio Ave, who will probably not find it easy getting on the scoresheet.

Our selection here is for a comfortable 0-2 winning score for Benfica at the end of this one.

Victor Martins, 17:03 15/01/2026