CD Nacional slide to fifth straight defeat as Famalicão run riot

CD Nacional lost for the fifth league game in a row, beaten 4-0 at home by Famalicão on Saturday 19 September. The result leaves the club on 4 points after 7 matches, 15th in Primeira Liga, with a goal difference of -8.

The numbers behind the run are unforgiving. One win, one draw, five defeats. 7 goals scored, 15 conceded. The current sequence reads LLLLL, and no side in the division is carrying a worse active streak than 5L.

What makes it stranger is where the damage has been done. At home CD Nacional have six wins, two draws and seven defeats across the relevant split; away from it, one win, three draws and ten defeats. The away record is the one dragging the season down, and it is not a small sample.

Famalicão did not need to be spectacular. Four goals, no reply, and the match was settled long before the closing stages. For a side already short on confidence, that is the worst possible shape of defeat.

Can it get easier? On paper, maybe. CD Nacional travel to face Rio Ave on Sunday 11 October in matchday 8, a fixture that looks kinder than most of what has come before. But kindness is not the issue. Scoring is.

The wider table offers little comfort either. Porto lead on 21 points with a goal difference of +15, SL Benfica sit second on 16, and Sporting CP are third on 15. At the other end, CD Nacional are on 4. That is the gap.

Five straight defeats is not a blip. It is the season so far.