Fast-starting Famalicao will look to maintain their impressive early momentum in the Primeira Liga when they head to Estadio Dom Afonso Henriques to take on Vitoria de Guimaraes this weekend.
The hosts are in sixth place in the league standings with six points after the first three games of the new season, while the visitors are third with a perfect three wins in three top-flight matches in 2024-25.
Match preview
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The 2023-24 season was another progressive one for Vitoria, as they managed to break into the top five in the league standings, marking their best-ever finish in the Primeira Liga since 2018-19.
Os Conquistadores kicked off this season in excellent form and booked their place in the upcoming Conference League with relative ease, winning each of their three qualifying ties without conceding a single goal.
In doing so, Vitoria beat Floriana and Zurich 5-0 on aggregate in their first two qualifiers before dispatching Zrinjski 7-0 on aggregate, with the second leg ending in a 4-0 away win in midweek.
Fair to say, Rui Borges's start to life in Guimaraes has been extremely positive, although the one blemish on his record so far was a surprising 1-0 loss to AVS last weekend, though the new boss did make a number of changes to his lineup that day.
Following the trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vitoria now return to Estadio Dom Afonso Henriques, where they are on a four-match winning streak in all competitions this season and have only suffered one defeat in their last six games in the league.
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Meanwhile, after finishing in eighth place in each of the last three seasons, Famalicao have absolutely shot out the blocks this term and enter gameweek four as one of only three sides with a perfect record.
The Blue and Whites got the new season started with an against-the-odds victory over Benfica on matchday one, and proved that result was no fluke by following up with a 3-0 win over Estrela and a 1-0 triumph against Boavista last weekend.
As it stands, Armando Evangelista's side are one of just two teams, along with Porto, who have yet to concede a goal this season, and their results so far mark the first time the team has kept three consecutive clean sheets in the league since February 2021.
Prior to the arrival of the former Goias boss back in March, Fama had failed to win four away games in a row, losing three and drawing one, but since Evangelista took the reigns, the team has only suffered one defeat on their travels.
Still, the visitors will know that they are in for a stern test here, having lost to this opponent at this venue 1-0 last season, while they have only won once in their last four visits to Guimaraes.
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Team News
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Vitoria have just one confirmed injury absentee for this match in Jorge Fernandes, who has now missed 17 matches in all competitions and is only expected to return to action in November at the earliest.
After making wholesale changes for the second leg against Zrinjski in midweek, Borges is likely to reinstate the likes of Jesus Ramirez, Telmo Arcanjo and Samu to the starting lineup this weekend.
Armando Evangelista has fielded the same starting lineup in each of his side's first three games this season, and given their success, it will come as no surprise if they remain unchanged this weekend as well.
Sorriso and Zaydou Youssouf have both scored twice already this term, though Oscar Aranda has yet to open his account and may be given one more chance here before Mario Gonzalez is brought in to lead the line.
Vitoria de Guimaraes possible starting lineup:
Varela; Gaspar, Fernandes, Borevkovic, Mendes; Silva, Handel, Samu; Mangas, Ramirez, Arcanjo
Famalicao possible starting lineup:
Zlobin; Calegari, Mihaj, De Haas, Moura; Topic, Youssouf; Rochinha, Sa, Sorriso; Aranda
We say: Vitoria de Guimaraes 2-1 Famalicao
While both these sides have made very impressive starts to the league campaign, Vitoria's solid home record is difficult to ignore, and we feel they will be able to hand Fama their first loss of the new season in this one.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Devesh Jaganath
