Flamengo vs Vasco da Gama Predictions

Thursday’s Brazilian Serie A action sees local rivals Flamengo and Vasco da Gama doing battle at the Maracana. The hosts arrive as massive favourites to win the game and should be able to do so without any real issues.

It’s fair to say Flamengo’s charge towards the Serie A title shows no signs of slowing down and the side could have things wrapped up as early as this weekend. 10 points clear with a huge 77 points to their name after 32 games, it’s going to take a huge collapse for Flamengo to fall from the top now and that’s simply not something that is even imaginable.

Indeed, Jorge Jesus’ troops are in unstoppable form; unbeaten in 23 matches across all competitions, winning 19 times in the process during a run that has also seen them reach the Copa Libertadores final. Having won 6 home games in a row, scoring a big average of 3 goals a game in the process, it’s fair to say confidence is sky high coming into Thursday’s game,

Meanwhile, close neighbours Vasco will travel to the Maracana look to cause a huge upset and get one over their local rivals. Almirante haven’t been in great form of late, winning just 1 of their last 5 games but the fact said victory came at the weekend in a 3-0 triumph away at CSA does at least give them a degree of confidence coming into the game.

Nonetheless, beating CSA is one thing but going blow for blow with Flamengo is another and with Vasco having lost their last 3 matches to sides stationed in the top 6, there aren’t many promising sides present as regards the visitors’ chances. Indeed, currently stationed in 11th in the table, Vasco are having nothing more than an average season on paper and are a considerably weaker team than Flamengo.

Ultimately, there can be no doubting that Flamengo are by far the strongest outfit in Brazil and it should be business as usual for them on Thursday. They are far superior to Vasco in all areas of the pitch and if they play to anywhere near their maximum, they’ll win easily.

All things considered, we like the look of backing a rampant home side to win this game by more than a single goal and feel backing them on a -1 handicap looks a smart way to play. Flamengo have won the last 3 meetings between the two, all by more than a single goal and with that in mind and the average amount of goals Flamengo tend to score at home, we believe a 3-1 margin of home victory could well be on the cards.