Fluminense vs Chapecoense Predictions

Saturday’s Brazilian Serie A action sees Fluminense doing battle with Chapecoense at the Maracana. The hosts arrive as big favourites to claim all 3 points and are expected to do so with very few issues.

It’s fair to say the pressure is back on Fluminense following back to back defeats to Athletico PR and Flamengo respectively. Tricolor have suffered a miserable campaign so far and though Marcao has come into the dugout and raised spirits significantly, the side are now just 3 points above the drop zone, leaving them desperate for a win this Saturday.

To be fair to Flu, the two sides they’ve lost too recently are strong outfits and they had been looking impressive prior to those losses, so there’s every reason to still be confident coming into this game. Indeed, when Marcao first took over the hosts took 10 points from a possible 12 and a far better side than Chapecoense on paper, they’ll be assured of their ability to get the job done.

Indeed, after defying the odds to stay in Serie A over recent seasons, this does look to be the year that Chapecoense finally suffer relegation. The side came into the season as one of the weakest teams on paper and have proved exactly that on the pitch, with just 17 points from 27 games leaving them a huge 11 points short of safety.

Simply put, Chapecoense are devoid of quality all over the pitch and just aren’t cut out for this level of football. They haven’t won any of their last 12 matches, losing 8 times in the process and having also lost 4 of their last 5 away games without even so much as scoring, they don’t look like taking anything back to Chapeco from this trip.

Ultimately, this is a match Fluminense cannot afford to drop points in and knowing that, we should see a highly motivated performance from the hosts. A home game against Chapecoense is about as easy a fixture as you can find in Serie A and having looked relatively strong under their new manager, Fluminense should have more than enough to get the win.

All things considered, we can’t picture anything but a home win in this one and feel that backing Fluminense to win to nil looks the best way to play. They’ve kept a clean sheet in 3 of their last 5 matches and with Chapecoense simply dire on their travels, a 2-0 margin of home victory could well be on the cards.