2026/2027 season

Primeira Liga

Team page

Primeira Liga · Team page

Moreirense FC

Head coach: Vasco Botelho da Costa · 4-3-3

Rank

12th

Pts

8

P

8

Form

🟠

The essentials at a glance

The summary of this page: estimated level of play, form trend and qualitative verdict. For the details, head to the other tabs.

Editors' ratings

4/10

Attack

3/10

Defence

3/10

Form

5/10

Confidence / mood

Current risk:High

12th with 8 pts from 8 matches: 2 wins, 2 draws, 4 defeats.

8 goals scored, 15 conceded.

The AVS defeated Moreirense, from the I Liga, by 1-0, in the match of the third elimination of the Portuguese Cup of football, holding Rodrigo Pinho's goal in the initial moments of the match.

RTP Desporto · 17 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

The referee whistles for the end of the match Follow here the AFS x Moreirense live and minute, with all the most interesting statistics and curiosities.

zerozero · 17 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

The second part began Follow here the AFS x Moreirense live and minute, with all the most interesting statistics and curiosities.

zerozero · 17 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

GOLO AFS! Rodrigo Pinho brand Follow here the AFS x Moreirense live and minute, with all the most interesting statistics and curiosities.

zerozero · 17 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

How the team has played recently

Match-by-match results, record and rhythm of the current season.

Latest matches

Lvs Gil Vicente FC (H) · 0-1

Dvs Vitória SC (A) · 1-1

Wvs CS Marítimo (H) · 3-1

Lvs Sport Lisboa e Benfica (H) · 0-4

Lvs FC Porto (A) · 1-2

WWDDLLLL

8 scored / 15 conceded over 8 matches played

Rest: 9 days since the last match · 1 match played in the last 15 days

Home form

1W - 1D - 2L

Away form

1W - 1D - 2L

Statistics

Computed from this season's scores, every time the page is shown.

Goals scored per match

1.0

Goals conceded per match

1.8

At home

3 scored · 6 conceded in 3 matches

Away

2 scored · 3 conceded in 2 matches

Over 2.5 goals

3 of 5

Both teams score

3 of 5

Clean sheets

0 of 5

Failed to score

2 of 5

Cumulative points vs league average

Not enough matchdays recorded yet for this curve — history builds up with every standings refresh.

How Moreirense FC play

System, playing identity, and what sets the team apart at both ends of the pitch.

Playing identity

Preferred system

4-3-3

Philosophy

Ahead of the trip to Arouca, Vasco Botelho da Costa championed a possession-based game: “queremos ter bola, como nós gostamos” (we want to have the ball, the way we like it), anticipating an open match between two teams with similar philosophies (maisfutebol.iol.pt, 15/08/2026). The heavy defeat that followed (0-4) invites some caution over this ambition based on this sample.

Attacking strengths

3 goals scored in 3 matches played (1 goal per game): 2 at Braga (2-2, 09/08), 0 at Arouca (0-4, 16/08) and the winning goal from Francisco “Kiko” Domingues at Casa Pia (1-0, 30/08), a curling strike from the edge of the box hailed by Maisfutebol as a possible Puskás Award contender.

Defensive solidity

6 goals conceded in 3 matchdays played (2 pts – average of 2 goals/match), weighed down by the 0-4 conceded at Arouca on 16/08. Vasco Botelho da Costa admitted after this setback: “Estivemos desorganizados, algo que não somos” (maisfutebol.iol.pt, 29/08/2026).

Pressing

Transitions

StrengthSpectacular goal and away win at Casa Pia (1-0, 30/08/2026) thanks to Francisco Domingues, a left-back developed at Benfica according to Maisfutebol. Positive reaction after the setback at Arouca: a win that gives the club fresh impetus after a week without a match used for training, according to the coach himself.

WeaknessHeavy 0-4 defeat at Arouca on 16/08/2026, which Vasco Botelho da Costa himself described as “disorganised”, citing a loss of competitiveness linked to repeated individual errors. Only 3 of 4 matchdays played, which reduces the available sample for analysis.

The mood around the club, and who is missing

Internal climate, relationship with the supporters, and known absences before the next match.

Mood

Squad confidence

The squad go into the trip to the Dragão with restored momentum: after the 0-4 suffered at Arouca, the 1-0 win at Casa Pia thanks to Kiko Domingues's spectacular goal has put Moreirense back in mid-table with four points from three matchdays. Vasco Botelho da Costa approaches the champions' match without inhibition but without illusions, announcing long defensive spells himself. He also acknowledges that the summer's squad changes disturbed last season's patterns, which still weighs on their build-up play. The end of the window cut both ways: Leonardo Vonic arrived on loan from FC Porto, but Alanzinho left on a free for their Guimarães rivals.

Coach / players / board relationship

The relationship between Vasco Botelho da Costa and his board is expressed with unusual candour: the head coach publicly restated that Moreirense are “a selling club”, without the resources to sign as he would like, which serves both as explanation and as acceptance of the business model of a club owned by Black Knight Football Club since June 2025. With his squad, he takes sporting responsibility without hiding behind circumstances, as after the setback at Arouca. The club, for its part, sent a signal of continuity by extending 22-year-old centre-back Gilberto Batista until 2029. Leonardo Vonic's arrival, on loan from FC Porto with a purchase option, fits the same logic of developing young profiles.

Mood with the supporters

Pressure on the head coach

No public questioning identified in the press consulted: Vasco Botelho da Costa is under contract until June 2027 according to BeSoccer.com (start date in the role not confirmed by a second source at this stage).

Club objectives

No numerical objective is announced, and the coach's message remains focused on competing match by match: “we have to focus a great deal on ourselves to keep going after the win against Casa Pia”. The immediate schedule is particularly harsh, with the trip to the Dragão on Friday and then hosting Benfica on 9 September for the rearranged matchday 2 fixture. Structurally, the ambition stated by shareholder Black Knight Football Club remains long-term development, reflected in extensions for young players such as Gilberto Batista until 2029 and in taking loanees developed at bigger clubs.

Recent internal tensions

No internal tension reported in the sources consulted, apart from the sporting dissatisfaction publicly expressed by the head coach after the defeat at Arouca (“ninguém está satisfeito”), which relates to performance rather than to any identified internal conflict.

Absences

InjuredJanderson — Summer signing (ex-Cruzeiro) still in his recovery period ahead of the trip to Casa Pia (matchday 4, 29/08/2026). Source: Sports Mole, 28/08/2026; corroborated by BeSoccer (return hoped for in “early September 2026”). CAUTION: BeSoccer also listed Yan Maranhão as absent (return “mid-September”), but Sports Mole (28/08/2026) states that he was fully recovered and available for that same match — a typical case of BeSoccer data freezing, so Yan Maranhão is NOT included here.

Before kick-off

What to know before the next match: statistical form, qualitative analysis, and a computed estimate of the 1/X/2 probabilities.

Next match

GD Estoril Praia — Moreirense FC

AwaySunday 25 October at 16:30Matchday 9

In 7 days. Kick-off time confirmed by the league. Paris time · football-data.org fixtures.

Prediction, odds and form of both teams →

What the press says

No preview found for this fixture. The press mostly covers the big games, and usually the day before.

Prediction

EstimateGD Estoril Praia — Moreirense FC

35 %

1 · GD Estoril Praia

28 %

X · draw

37 %

2 · Moreirense FC

In-house calculation, from this page's standings data alone: 8 matches played by GD Estoril Praia, 8 matches by Moreirense FC. Confidence: fair

The formula, in plain words — with this match's figures

League average. 195 goals scored over 142 team-matches played (18 teams taken into account), i.e. μ = 1.37 goal scored per team per match. This is the reference point: everything that follows is expressed relative to it.
Attacking and defensive strengths. Goals scored (or conceded) per match, divided by μ. 1.00 = exactly average; in defence, above 1.00 means “concedes more than average”.
TeamGoalsRawKept
GD Estoril Praia — attack4 in 8 matches0.360.64
GD Estoril Praia — defence12 in 8 matches1.091.05
Moreirense FC — attack8 in 8 matches0.730.84
Moreirense FC — defence15 in 8 matches1.371.21
The “Kept” column is the result of shrinkage towards the mean: weight = P / (P + 6), i.e. 0.57 for GD Estoril Praia and 0.57 for Moreirense FC. The rest of the weight goes to the league average. This is what stops a lone 5-0 from producing an attack at 3.3 times the average — and hence a 95% probability.
Home advantage (γ). Measured on the league itself: 1.20 goal scored on average by the host against 1.49 by the visitor, over the 45 fixtures present in each team's last 5 matches. Raw ratio 0.81; shrunk towards 1 (weight 0.43, on the log of the ratio) then capped at 1.25 → γ = 1.00. Shrinkage goes towards 1, i.e. no advantage at all: while the sample is small, the model does not assert a home advantage it cannot measure.
Venue correction, specific to each team. Drawn from the home/away split: points per match at the venue concerned are compared to points per match over all fixtures, with stronger shrinkage (weight = P / (P + 8)) and a bound of ±12%.
GD Estoril Praia at home: 0.50 pts/match versus 0.25 overall over 4 matches → ×1.120
Moreirense FC away: 1.00 pts/match versus 1.00 overall over 4 matches → ×1.000
Expected goals. One side's attack is set against the other's defence. γ applies to the host only: applying it the other way round too would count the home advantage twice.
λ_{GD Estoril Praia} = 1.37 × 0.64 × 1.21 × 1.00 × 1.120 = 1.18
λ_{Moreirense FC} = 1.37 × 0.84 × 1.05 × 1.000 = 1.22
Poisson grid. Probability of every exact score from 0-0 to 8-8, assuming the two goal totals are independent, then adding up the cells: home win 35.3%, draw 27.6%, away win 37.1% — displayed rounded to whole numbers so that they add up to exactly 100. Most likely exact score in the grid: 1-1 (only 13.0%, which says enough about how unpredictable an exact score is).

Limits of this model — they are not anecdotal.

It only knows goals and a venue. Neither absences, suspensions, line-ups, fatigue, stakes, weather nor club context enter the calculation — while the other tabs of this page show that they matter.
The assumption that the two goal totals are independent is false in reality: it slightly underestimates tight scores, hence the draw.
γ is measured over a rolling window (each team's last 5 matches), not over the whole season.
The shrinkage constants (6, 60, 8) and the bounds are choices, not measurements. They were tuned to be cautious early in the season; they were not calibrated on a results history, as none is available here.
No after-the-fact evaluation has been made: at this stage, nobody knows whether this model is better or worse calibrated than another.

What other sources say

No external source has been collected for this match. That is the normal state: readings are taken by hand, and an empty box is better than an unverified figure.

This block shows probability estimates, not predictions, and carries no advisory value. The in-house estimate is the result of a formula applied to a small sample; the figures from external sources are reproduced as they were collected, without their method having been verified.

The full squad

The professional squad by position, captain marked with an armband.

Goalkeepers

André Ferreira
Aranha

Defenders

Maracás
Dinis Pinto
Kiko
Álvaro Martínez
Leandro Santos
Gilberto Batista
Kevyn Monteiro
Janderson
Pedro Jesus
Koby Mottoh

Midfielders

Manuel Mendonça
Mateja Stjepanović
R. Alonso
João Veloso
Guilherme
Nile John
Miguel Silva
Afonso Assis
Jimi Gower

Forwards

Kiko Bondoso
A. Duville-Parsemain
Yan Maranhão
Landerson
T. Andrade
A. Vieira
Rodrigo Soares
Michael Dacosta
Francisco Domingues

This team's current captain could not be confirmed with certainty at the last check — no armband is shown above until the information is reliable.

Squad last verified on 1 Sep 2026 — source: BeSoccer.com, cross-checked with Worldfootball.net and Maisfutebol for players mentioned in matches; captain not identified in these sources.

What has been said recently

Chronological feed of verified information about the club.

rss8 Oct 2026

Luís Pinto promises Gil's most effective team Vicente in front of Moreirense

Source: Notícias ao Minuto — Desporto

rss17 Oct 2026

Another I League team out of the Cup. Moreirense eliminated by AVS

Source: Notícias ao Minuto — Desporto

rss17 Oct 2026

AVS surprises Moreirense in the third elimination

Source: RTP Desporto

rss9 Oct 2026

Gil Vicente beats Moreirense with penalti at 90 minutes

Source: Notícias ao Minuto — Desporto

rss17 Oct 2026

The AFS x Moreirense was like this...

Source: zerozero

rss8 Oct 2026

Vasco Botelho da Costa considers stop positive for Moreirense

Source: Notícias ao Minuto — Desporto

Head coach3 Sep 2026

Before the trip to the Dragão, Vasco Botelho da Costa described an exceptional match for his squad: “These are the matches where you feel how much the players want to play, all the more so against the national champions.” He warned that his team would spend a lot of time defending, while trying to exploit the space left by Porto's press, and played down the preparation: “From knowing them well to being able to stop them, there is a long way to go.”

Source: A Bola

Contract3 Sep 2026

Moreirense have extended until 2029 their Bissau-Guinean centre-back Gilberto Batista, 22, who arrived from Sporting in 2023-24 and became a defensive mainstay last season with 28 matches including 21 starts. “This extension shows the club's confidence in me, I am here to help reach our objectives,” he said.

Source: A Bola

Transfers3 Sep 2026

Alanzinho leaves Moreira de Cónegos after four seasons, 141 matches, 25 goals and 25 assists: a free agent, the 26-year-old Brazilian attacking midfielder signs for regional rivals Vitória SC.

Source: A Bola

Club3 Sep 2026

The rearranged matchday 2 fixture against Benfica has been set for 9 September at 20:45; Moreirense currently sit in mid-table with four points from three matchdays played.

Source: Maisfutebol

Club3 Sep 2026

A Bola devotes a profile to Francisco “Kiko” Domingues, scorer of the winner at Casa Pia: the Benfica-developed left-back, a friend of João Félix, openly says he is aiming for nothing less than the Puskás award for the goal of the year.

Source: A Bola

Club2 Sep 2026

Moreirense open matchday 5 on Friday at 20:15 at the Estádio do Dragão, where António Nobre will referee with Bruno Esteves on VAR.

Source: Maisfutebol

Transfers31 Aug 2026

Forward Leonardo Vonic, 23, born in Germany and a Croatian national, has been loaned by FC Porto until the end of the season, with a purchase option for Moreirense. Having played for Nuremberg and then Porto's B team, he scored 7 goals in 12 matches in his first half-season there, then 7 more in 28 games.

Source: A Bola

Result30 Aug 2026

Moreirense FC won 1-0 away at Casa Pia on matchday 4.

Source: Campeonatos Internacionais

Club30 Aug 2026

Moreirense won 1-0 at Casa Pia on 30 August 2026 thanks to a splendid curling strike from Francisco “Kiko” Domingues (24th minute), a Benfica-trained left-back, which Maisfutebol likened to a possible candidate for the Puskás award for the best goal.

Source: Maisfutebol (IOL)

Club29 Aug 2026

After the 0-4 defeat conceded at Arouca, head coach Vasco Botelho da Costa acknowledged a “disorganised” team, referring to individual errors that had made the group less competitive. He nevertheless felt that the match-free week that followed had been useful for collective work, before adding that “no player is satisfied with what happened on the last matchday”.

Source: Maisfutebol (IOL)

News last verified on 17 Oct 2026. Sources: sports press (L'Équipe, Le Parisien, Foot Mercato, regional press…) and official club websites — see the link on each item.

Editorial content (playing style, mood, absences, external prediction sources) last verified on 3 Sep 2026. The standings/form data above are refreshed automatically — as is the 1/X/2 estimate, recomputed on every view.