Week 16 brings us a match on Jan 14th where Rio Ave plays host to Paços de Ferreira in a meeting of these two extremely mismatched Primeira Liga teams. The game day is forecasted to be a cloudy and cool day, with daytime temperatures of only 14 degrees, which is great football weather. In their last match, 8th placed Rio Ave, recorded a 0-0 scoreless draw against Vitória SC. Neither Vitória SC nor Rio Ave could manage to put one past the goalie. They had 9 and 9 shots on net respectively, but no one could score, and the match ended in a scoreless draw,. Rio Ave is looking for direction having earned 15 points in their last 10 matches, while paços de Ferreira sits at 18th place in the tables. In their last match they recorded a 1-1 draw against Chaves. Juninho struck first for Chaves in the 67th minute, then Uilton tied it up for Paços de Ferreira in the 75th minute earning them at least the one point. Paços de Ferreira looks to improve on their recent performance, having lost 7 of their last 10.
These two teams have not yet played each other this season, so it will be interesting how the match turns out. Emmanuel Boateng and Abdul-Aziz Yakubu are the top scorers for Rio Ave in the last 5 matches, but unfortunately they only have one goal. It’s hard to imagine having success with those stats.