Palmeiras vs Ceara Predictions

Sunday’s Brazilian Serie A clash sees leaders Palmeiras doing battle with relegation threatened Ceara. The hosts will be looking for yet another win to keep up their title charge.

Another week passes and Palmeiras look ever closer to running out Serie A champions. Almost entirely out of the title picture just mere months ago, Verdao have transformed into a winning machine since Luiz Felipe Scolari returned and now find themselves 3 points clear at the top and 14 league matches unbeaten, 11 of which being wins.

An excellent 2-0 win over fellow contenders Gremio last weekend has spirits sky high in home ranks and considering it was the side’s 8th consecutive victory in front of the home crowd, those that take to the field on Sunday will do so extremely confident of getting the job done. Whilst a trip to Boca Juniors for a midweek Libertadores semi-final, first leg clash is a distraction, Palmeiras have been balancing numerous competitions well all year and for now focus can only be on Ceara.

In their current shape, the visitors will surely pose more of a challenge than they would have earlier on in the season. Vozão had looked well short of the quality required in Serie A and seemed set for an immediate return after lying bottom of the table for most of the year, but having lost just 1 of their last 7 games, winning 4 times in the process, there’s a feeling the great escape could well be on.

Now just a point shy of safety, Ceara have plenty of momentum behind them but there’s no doubting the magnitude of the task they face on Sunday is still huge. 5 of Ceara’s games in those aforementioned fixtures have came against sides currently stationed in the bottom half and whilst they did manage to sneak a win away at Flamengo, they lost to Gremio and it’s quite apparent their upturn in form is at least somewhat related to the quality of opponent they’ve been facing.

Ultimately, if Ceara do go on to salvage their top flight status, they’re unlikely to do so with the aid of anything collected in this match. Man for man, Palmeiras are by far the stronger of the two and with great momentum behind them, it’s almost impossible to envisage them dropping points.

All things considered, backing the hosts to win to nil looks an excellent way to play and is exactly where our money is going. Ceara have lost 7 of their 13 away games this season, scoring just 8 goals over said matches and with Palmeiras having won 6 of their last 7 home games to nil, it’s hard to envisage the hosts posing any kind of problem. Palmeiras have won their last 2 matches 2-0 and we fancy they’ll extend that streak to 3 come full time.