Rio Ave vs Sporting Lisbon Predictions

• All of Sporting’s three league matches this season have seen at least four goals scored
• Both teams have scored in all of Sporting’s three league matches this term
• Sporting have won seven of their last eight games against Rio Ave

Sporting unlikely to give rivals a chance

Sporting will hope to wrestle the Portuguese top-flight title away from Porto, but the Lions’ 2-2 opening day draw at Estrela has already seen the Lisbon side slip two points off the champions.

The Lions were raided for some of their top talent in the summer, with Geovany Quenda, Morten Hjulmand, Ousmane Diomande and Francisco Trincao all leaving the club, and while Sporting have been active in the transfer market, they have lost a large chunk of quality.

Rui Borges’ men have scored eight goals in their opening three league matches of the season and all of their Portuguese top-flight games have seen both teams score and go over 3.5 goals.

Sporting hit 16 efforts on goal and created an expected goals figure of 2.32 in a 3-1 home win over Alverca and they are well-fancied to beat Rio Ave on Friday night.

Vilacondenses picked up a good 2-0 win over Estoril, but they had previously been beaten 2-0 at home by Porto and Gil Vicente.

The Porto result gives a clear indication of what punters can expect when Sporting head for Rio Ave and the Lions are fancied for a comfortable success.