Gil Vicente have won two home matches and were unlucky not to win all three. I am backing the Barcelos club to bounce back and condemn Maritimo to a fourth straight defeat.
Key Stats
- Gil Vicente have won 7 of their last 12 home matches.
- Gil Vicente’s Héctor Hernández has scored 3 goals in his last 5 matches.
- Gil Vicente have won 4 of their last 5 matches against Maritimo.
- Maritimo have lost their last 3 matches.
HTH
Maritimo have lost four of their previous five encounters against Gil Vicente. The Islanders are holding onto a narrow 19-17 lead in the HTH alongside nine draws.
Hernández in Form for Gil Vicente
Gil Vicente had a great start to the season, winning their opening two matches at home thanks to goals from Héctor Hernández. They were then held to a 0-0 draw at Familacao.
Luís Pinto’s side suffered an unlucky 1-0 defeat against Academico Viseu. They fell behind in the 4th minute but couldn’t equalise despite having 33-6 shots and 1.88-0.34 xG.
Hernández opened the scoring at Benfica on Sunday but the Eagles were too strong. The Barcelos club went down 3-1 in Lisbon after conceding two late goals.
Pinto was proud of his team despite the result: “It's a game where, as expected, we were going to defend a lot. When we had the ball, we managed to be what we want to be, very personalised. We created problems for Benfica.”
“I would have liked to have gotten into the box more often, but whenever we did, it was with considerable danger. Defensively, we were forced to stay deep, and we managed to nullify almost all of Benfica's attacks in the final third.”
“Unfortunately, near the end, Benfica's goal came from a penalty, and the Benfica player was cold-blooded. In the next play, we could have made it 2-2... We are proud of our performance and dissatisfied with the result.”
Three Straight Defeats for Maritimo
Maritimo’s return to the Portuguese top division was a success, beating Casa Pia (1-0) and Famalicao (2-1) before Adrián Butzke’s late penalty earned a 2-2 draw against Academico Viseu.
The Madeiran club have now lost three straight. A 2-1 defeat at Arouca was followed by a 3-0 loss against Benfica where they had one shot on target and 0.04 xG.
Mitchell van der Gaag’s side are coming off a 3-1 defeat at Moreirense. Romain Correia got a goal back in the 79th minute but the loss was ultimately deserved after ending with 0.94-2.11 xG.
The Dutch manager wants his team to create more opportunities: “In some aspects we have already evolved a lot, in terms of possession, but we have to create opportunities. We had the ball for a long time, in the opponent's half, but without creating chances.”
Predicted Lineups & Team News
Gil Vicente (4-2-3-1) Lucão; Ricardo Esgaio, Marvin Elimbi, Jonathan Buatu, David Moreira; Zé Carlos, Diogo Prioste; Murilo Souza, Santi García, Gil Martins; Héctor Hernández
Diogo Prioste will hope to return to midfield after being ineligible at Benfica. Mohamed Bamba, Weverson Costa and Walace França remain out injured.
Santi García came off the bench last time out and Pinto spoke about his return: “Of course it's good news for us, he managed to play 30 or 35 minutes and felt quite good. He adds to our options and has been used consistently since he's been at Gil Vicente. That shows his quality.”
Maritimo (4-3-3) Alfonso Pastor; Igor Julião, Rafael Fernandes, Romain Correia, Paulo Henrique; Raphael Guzzo, Vladan Danilović, Rodrigo Andrade; Samuel Bamba, Adrián Butzke, Martín Tejón
Samuel Bamba could be handed his first start of the season with Bryan Limbombe moving to the bench.