Vizela – Chaves

In a match between equal opponents, the visitors will at least not lose

Looking at the Primeira table, it's hard to imagine that two mid-table sides of near-equivalent proportions were in different divisions last season. Chaviche made their way to the elite Portuguese league with great difficulty. The team finished third in the second-placed league and were proving eligible for promotion in the play-offs with Moreirensi, the third bottom club from the Primera Liga. For their part, Vizela finished last season in 14th position, four to seven points ahead of the three relegated clubs. Before the upcoming meeting, bookmakers identified the home side as the favourites, offering odds of 1.85 to win. Vizela started the season with a win over Rio Ave, but have picked up just two points in the next six rounds. Only once this season has the team managed to win two consecutive fixtures. That was in the first decade of October last year. Since the resumption of the season in the Primera Liga, Vizela have shown surprising consistency, alternating wins and losses in six consecutive rounds. The team suffered three away defeats and three wins at home. On the one hand, the statistics "vote" for Vizel to win in the upcoming match, but this club is not of the class to blindly trust in the stability of their performance in their arena for just over a month. Shavish have quickly assimilated into the Primera Liga, losing only once in the first five rounds of the season. It is in away matches that the team has the audacity to perform. Only in the first half of the season, Shaviche managed to defeat Sporting and Braga - clubs with whom they have a class difference the size of the abyss. Since the reopening of the Primera Liga in December, the team have played six games in which they lost only twice. In three away encounters during this period, Chaviche have produced two draws, and in the third, they lost only by a 90+7 minute conceded goal. The statistics of Vizela and Chaviche in their head-to-head encounters look surprising. In the current period of history, since July 2019, the rivals have played five matches against each other, at the end of which they have never decided the winner. In such a situation, it is better to bet in favour of the underdog picking up the points.