Football Bet of the Day: Big River too strong for Boavista

Rio Ave v Boavista
Saturday 19:00

St Etienne beat Monaco 2-0 in France last night to leave us one short in our goals bet. Today we're making our second trip of the week to Portugal, where we like the odds-against price on an in-form home team to beat some travel-sick visitors.

Rio Ave have won 5/6 Primeira Liga meetings with Boavista, including both fixtures last year. Today's hosts have also won their first two home matches of the new season. Going back into last term, they are unbeaten in 12 at Rio Ave Stadium. Since the start of 2017/18, the Big River are W13-D2-L1 if you ignore matches against Portugal's Big Three (Sporting, Benfica and Porto).

Boavista are currently 14th in the table, having recently taken one point from a possible 12 at home and away. Jorge Simao's men have lost 8/11 on the road in a bad run that stretches back to their 0-2 defeat in this fixture last season. We think the Panthers are more likely to extend these trends than buck them, so are very happy to take the 2.1411/10 about Rio Ave to win this one tonight.