Vitoria vs America Mineiro
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Serial survivors Vitoria host America Mineiro in a do-or-die Serie A encounter in Brazil and although I doubt it’ll be an entertaining affair, I do think that Vitoria have got what it takes to pick up three points. Let’s face it – if they don’t, they’re in hot water.
Vitoria survive at this level because they are very strong at home. They work harder in home games than in away games, for starters. They make life uncomfortable for their opposition via multiple methods. They never stop pressing either. For Serie A level football, this is a very complicated game for visiting teams. It takes a very strong display from an away team to do anything but lose at the Estadio Manoel Barradas, basically.
Indeed, the only teams to avoid defeat in Bahia this season have been Cruzeiro, Palmeiras, Internacional, Flamengo, and Fluminense – the bigger/better teams of the division. All of the others have lost here, including Atletico Mineiro. Vitoria have a great deal of experience when it comes to making games of this nature really count. They made good signings last month, bringing in players like Erick, Bruno Gomes, and Walter Bou. Their most impressive acquisition was classy Arouca though, who knows this division inside out. They’ve got some really strong attacking options in their ranks now, and a good leader in Arouca. They should be even more trustworthy than ever at home after these signings, and they have been since July so I don’t doubt their chances tonight.
America Mineiro have impressed me lately though. They’ve been fighting really hard and keeping some unexpected clean sheets to boot. I put it down to the appointment of Adilson Batista as manager but they now look rather good at the back. He’s not a Gusmao type manager but he does bring about a flexibility in their play that allows them to effectively “park the bus” – and they’re good at it. They’ve even picked up points on the road recently by scoring and sitting on it so they’re a side to be wary of for the foreseeable future, particularly with some very experienced heads in their squad.
Having said all that, the teams they’ve beaten lately have all had mental weaknesses to exploit. For example, they won at Santos, who are mentally weak. They also won at Sport Recife, which I find to be a very tough game but given the way in which Sport Recife’s heads have dropped on their awful run, it was not the usual hard game. I do like the way they’re fighting at the moment though, the Belo Horizonte club – they might just stay up if they carry on fighting as valiantly as they have been,
All that said, a trip to Vitoria requires more than just graft. Nobody in Brazil works harder than the two big Bahia clubs. Additional quality is required and despite the presence of Donizete and Moura, America Mineiro lack it. Therefore, I believe Vitoria will just about edge what should be a very testy encounter.
Verdict: Vitoria to win at 11/10.
Saturday’s Thoughts
As ever, if there are any explanations required then please feel free to post a comment! For the remainder of my thoughts on today’s games, see below, although I feel compelled to write that the below are not necessarily my tips but merely my thoughts. For confidence ratings, you’ll need to go to the members section here.
Argentinian Superliga:
Defensa y Justicia vs Belgrano de Cordoba
Banfield vs Patronato
Talleres de Cordoba vs Godoy Cruz de Mendoza
San Lorenzo de Almagro vs River Plate
Austrian Bundesliga:
Austria Vienna vs SV Mattersburg
SCR Altach vs St. Polten
Wacker Innsbruck vs Hartberg
Belgian Eerste Klasse:
AS Eupen vs Standard de Liege
Lokeren vs Waasland-Beveren
Sint-Truiden vs KV Oostende
Sporting Charleroi vs Royal Excel Mouscron
Brazilian Serie A:
Vitoria vs America Mineiro
Gremio vs Botafogo
Vasco da Gama vs Santos
Corinthians vs Atletico Mineiro
Bulgarian A PFG:
Septemvri Sofia vs Etar
Botev Vratsa vs Lokomotiv Plovdiv
Levski Sofia vs Beroe
Croatian Prva Liga:
Slaven Koprivnica vs Hajduk Split
NK Osijek vs Lokomotiva Zagreb
Czech Republic HET Liga:
Slovan Liberec vs Banik Ostrava
Zlin vs Marila Pribram
Mlada Boleslav vs Teplice
Opava vs Baumit Jablonec
Slavia Prague vs Viktoria Plzen
Danish Superligaen:
SonderjyskE vs Hobro
English Premier League:
Leicester City vs Liverpool
Brighton & Hove Albion vs Fulham
Chelsea vs Bournemouth
Crystal Palace vs Southampton
Everton vs Huddersfield Town
West Ham United vs Wolverhampton Wanderers
Manchester City vs Newcastle United
Estonian Meistriliiga:
Kuressaare vs Tulevik
Flora Paide vs Tammeka
FCI Levadia Tallinn vs Tallinna Kalev
Faroese Meistaradeildin:
HB Torshavn vs AB Argir
KI Klaksvik vs Vikingur Gotu
TB/FCS/Royn vs EB/Streymur
NSI Runavik vs B36 Torshavn
Skala vs 07 Vestur Sorvagur
Finnish Veikkausliiga:
SJK vs KuPS Kuopio
Finnish Ykkonen:
Jaro Pietarsaari vs KPV Kokkola
Klubi-04 vs JJK Jyvaskyla
AC Oulu vs HIFK Helsinki
Kajaani vs KTP
French Ligue 1:
Nimes Olympique vs Paris Saint-Germain
Angers SCO vs Lille OSC
Dijon FCO vs Stade Malherbe de Caen
En Avant Guingamp vs Toulouse
Stade de Reims vs Montpellier HSC
Racing Club Strasbourg vs Nantes Atlantique
German Bundesliga:
Hoffenheim vs SC Freiburg
Bayer 04 Leverkusen vs VfL Wolfsburg
Eintracht Frankfurt vs Werder Bremen
Augsburg vs Borussia Moenchengladbach
Nurnberg vs Mainz 05
VfB Stuttgart vs Bayern Munich
German Bundesliga 2:
Arminia Bielefeld vs Jahn Regensburg
MSV Duisburg vs Greuther Furth
Hungarian Liga 1:
Debreceni VSC vs Szombathelyi Haladas
Ujpest vs Budapest Honved
MTK Budapest vs Varda SE
Diosgyori VTK vs Paksi SE
Mezokovesd-Zsory vs Puskas FC
Israeli Ligat Ha’al:
Hapoel Ra’anana vs Ironi Kiryat Shmona
Maccabi Haifa vs MS Ashdod
Maccabi Netanya vs Bnei Sakhnin
Hapoel Tel-Aviv vs Hapoel Haifa
Italian Serie A:
Bologna vs Internazionale
Parma vs Juventus
Italian Serie B:
Carpi vs Cittadella
Cosenza vs Hellas Verona
Padova vs Venezia
Spezia vs Brescia
Dutch Eredivisie:
VVV Venlo vs Heerenveen
PSV Eindhoven vs Willem II
Excelsior Rotterdam vs ADO Den Haag
Fortuna Sittard vs FC Utrecht
Norwegian Eliteserien:
Stromsgodset vs Tromso
Stabaek vs Sandefjord
Portuguese Liga 1:
Belenenses vs Vitoria Setubal
Desportivo Aves vs Maritimo Funchal
Santa Clara vs Boavista
Sporting Clube de Portugal vs Feirense
Portuguese Liga 2:
Academica de Coimbra vs SL Benfica II
Mafra vs UD Oliveirense
Cova Piedade vs Estoril
FC Porto II vs Academico Viseu
Sporting Braga II vs Penafiel
Russian Premier League:
Krylya Sovetov Samara vs Anzhi Makhachkala
CSKA Moscow vs Ural Sverdlovskaya Oblast
FK Krasnodar vs Lokomotiv Moscow
Spanish Primera Liga:
Celta de Vigo vs Atletico Madrid
Real Madrid vs Leganes CF
Swedish Allsvenskan:
AIK Solna vs BK Hacken Goteborg
Orebro vs Ostersunds FK
Swiss Super League:
Lugano vs FC Zurich
Sion vs Young Boys Bern
Swiss Challenge League:
Rapperswil-Jona vs Aarau
Winterthur vs FC Schaffhausen
Turkish Super Lig:
Fenerbahce vs Kayserispor
Akhisarspor vs Sivasspor
Trabzonspor vs Galatasaray
Alanyaspor vs Goztepe
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