America Mineiro vs Santos
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Today’s free tip is in the Brazilian Serie A encounter between America Mineiro and Santos.
I like this one a lot more than I probably should. Unsurprisingly, Mancini has joined America Mineiro and forced the players to start giving a shit. Since then, they’ve picked up four points from six, drawing with superior Internacional, and beating notorious battlers Bahia 4-3 in their own backyard.
Now, this run cannot continue. It’s not Mancini’s style to get a team playing crazy attacking football, but his team has been forced into reacting – and they have. That side of it will please him because the players are demonstrating effort and belief, which is half of the battle. He prefers to outsmart and outfight teams though, so that’s what I expect to see from them, particularly in home matches. That’s especially true tonight against a soulless Santos side too.
I can’t deny that the visitors are the better team here, and nor would I try to. Instead, my reasoning for backing the underdogs here is the same as most times when I oppose Santos; their opponents are going to want it more. America Mineiro are going to be serious battlers under Mancini. No, they’re not going to continue to score as many goals as they have done of late, but they are going to make themselves very hard to deal with. Santos hate playing against teams like this, especially away from home. I really don’t think that America Mineiro are going to lose this game for that very reason, and they might just win it if their ruthless finishing continues.
As ever, Santos are going to be massively reliant on Marinho to bail them out here. He’s a complete class act, capable of doing it all on his own if he has to. I’m still amazed that nobody from America, the Middle East, or even another club in China has bought him because he’s been phenomenal at carrying a massively overrated Santos team for two years now. He’s too good for this level. He’s an inspiration to youngsters like Kaio Jorge and Marcelo Leonardo coming through, which helps Santos, but relying on him like they do is just asking for trouble because they simply don’t have another route to goal right now.
Mota does his best in midfield, and Sanchez’s return in front of the back four gives them a bit more control than they generally have, but this is not an impressive team. As ever, Santos are not far away from producing wonderkids that they randomly find but they’re almost always attacking players. Their defence is still a joke, and their capacity to control games on a regular basis is embarrassing. This is a disjointed, disinterested, and disappointing Santos team that only wins games via luck/Marinho. I just don’t see that being enough against such a driven and combative America Mineiro tonight.
These two teams haven’t met for a few years, but even then Santos only one once in four attempts, losing the other three. I wouldn’t call America Mineiro a ‘bogey team’, per se, but let’s just say that their style usually annoys Santos enough for the Belo Horizonte club to get what they want from such meetings, hence my interest.
Verdict: America Mineiro to win with draw no bet at 17/20.
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.
International Friendlies:
El Salvador vs Qatar
Mexico vs Nigeria
Brazilian Serie A:
Corinthians vs Internacional
Athletico Paranaense vs Fortaleza
America Mineiro vs Santos
Icelandic PepsiMaxDeild:
Breidablik Kopavogur vs Leiknir Reykjavik
Stjarnan Gardabaer vs Keflavik
Lithuanian A Lyga:
Dziugas Telsiai vs Hegelmann Litauen
Norwegian Eliteserien:
Bodo/Glimt vs Viking Stavanger
Swedish Allsvenskan:
IFK Norrkoping vs Malmo FF
Degerfors vs Ostersunds FK
Enjoy your free betting tips!