Alverca beat Rio Ave 1:0 in the seventh round of the Primeira Liga at the Complexo Desportivo FC Alverca on Saturday. Dawda Camara Sankharé gave the hosts the lead after just three minutes, and they saw it out despite Rio Ave holding more possession. The result leaves Alverca on eight points in tenth place, while Rio Ave remain on four points in sixteenth.
By then the home side had already set the tone, and here's the thing about goals in the opening minutes — they tend to make teams sit deeper and look after what they have. Alverca didn't chase the game after the breakthrough; they pressed high up the pitch and forced Rio Ave into long balls. The visitors created nothing of note, while the hosts registered four big chances and 3.3 expected goals.
We had tipped Alverca to win, but only at 40 per cent confidence, and it paid for a sloppy opening from Rio Ave. To be fair, the away side didn't respond with any urgency, and their expected assists figure of 0.27 told the story of a team unable to find space between the lines. Alverca's key passes — seventeen — showed they knew where to look when it mattered.
The coaching staff at Alverca made changes to protect the lead rather than extend it. Pedro Amaral and Roland Galcik came on together in the fifty-ninth minute, followed shortly by Lucas Figueiredo dos Santos and Dawda Camara Sankharé himself. Miguel Patricío, João Tomé Baptista and Tamas Nikitscher were all replaced in the sixty-ninth, and Francisco Chiquinho and Francisco Chissumba made way in the seventy-fourth and eighty-fourth.
Yellow cards came for Simón García, Davy Gui and André Vidigal, nothing that changed the complexion of the game. Rio Ave's goalkeeper made five saves to Alverca's three, but the difference was in the quality of the chances created. Six shots on target for the hosts against three for the visitors, and only one of Rio Ave's attempts came from inside the penalty area.
The result means Alverca have picked up their second win in seven games, while Rio Ave's fifth defeat leaves them two points off the drop zone. Recent form has been difficult for the visitors — five matches without a clean sheet on the spin — and this result doesn't make life any easier going forward.
