Chapecoense vs Palmeiras Predictions

Sunday’s Brazilian Serie A action sees reigning champions Palmeiras travelling to do battle with Chapecoense at the Arena Conda. The visitors are expected to claim all 3 points with very few issues.

Coming into the season, Chapecoense certainly looked like one of the weaker teams on paper in this season’s Serie A and early matches have only served to re-affirm that the side are likely going to be in a season long struggle against relegation to Serie B. After 6 matches, Chape have 7 points and haven’t looked a particularly impressive outfit under boss Ney Franco, who has thus far done little to inspire confidence that he’s the man for the job.

Having lost 3 of their last 5 matches, conceding an average of 1.6 goals a game in the process, Chape don’t come into Sunday’s game in great form. Nonetheless, they did manage to pick up a first win in 5 matches away to Cruzeiro last weekend, so arrive with confidence somewhat boosted ahead of this clash with the champions.

Meanwhile, it certainly looks like being business as usual for Palmeiras in 2019. Verdao powered to the Serie A crown last season under Luiz Felipe Scolari and despite having played a game less than everybody else in the league so far, they’re still top of the pile courtesy of 12 points from 5 outings.

Palmeiras are now unbeaten in a staggering 29 league matches across this season and last and it’s fairly apparent it’s going to take some stopping them this campaign. Arriving having won 9 of their last 10 games across all competitions, conceding just once in the process, the visitors are an incredibly consistent outfit and will be looking to get the job done once again here in Chapeco.

All things considered, it’s fairly easy to ascertain who the favourites are to win this match and that’s Palmeiras. Man for man, they are stronger than Chapecoense all over the pitch and the hosts are unlikely to cause them too many issues on what we’ve seen from them up until this point.

Given how strong they are defensively, backing Palmeiras to win the game to nil looks the best way to play as far as the betting goes and is exactly where our money is going at a more than reasonable price. The visitors have looked almost impenetrable for months now and we feel they’ll run out 1-0 winners in this fixture.