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Steffen Schmidt - August 9, 2023
Bragantino vs America MG
CONMEBOL Copa Sudamericana
Date: 11 August 2023, Friday
Kick-off at 01:00 UK / 02:00 CET
Venue: Neo Quimica Arena (Sao Paulo).
RB Bragantino will be hoping to confirm the favorites’ tag on Thursday night when they play host to America MG in the rematch of the all-Brazilian Copa Sudamericana round of 16 tie.
We saw no winner seven days ago in Belo Horizonte, leaving things still wide open ahead of the reverse leg in Sao Paulo.
America’s top scorer Gonzalo Mastriani found the late equalizer last week after coming on from the bench to help his team avoid a defeat in the home fixture.
Mastriani has seven goals in his nine starts across competitions and he will be the only big threat to Bragantino’s goal on Thursday.
Nevertheless, we can hardly see Mastriani doing much in this affair knowing about Bragantino’s impressive defensive form in recent weeks.
The hosts kept their third straight clean sheet in the Serie A at the weekend, beating Coritiba 0-1 on the road.
They are now lock on points with four other teams at the second place of the domestic league table as a top-six finish and a place in the Copa Libertadores next season is well up for grabs for head coach Pedro Caixinha and his troops.
The story is completely opposite with America MG who firmly hold the very foot of the league table after another domestic loss on Sunday when they fell 3-1 at Bahia.
America MG own by far the worst defensive record in the top flight of Brazilian football with 40 goals conceded in 17 games this term. The fact they’ve won just 2 of these 17 outings says enough about their form.
The gulf in quality between these outfits is significant and we expect Bragantino to dominate the pitch from the first to the final whistle on Thursday. You can back the HT/FT option at the 2.30 odds.
Alternatively, the hosts are worth backing to win to nil at the attractive 2.62 odds knowing they’ve kept their net untouched in three consecutive Serie A outings.
