Santos vs Avai Predictions

Sunday’s Brazilian Serie A action sees in-form Santos doing battle with the struggling Avai. The hosts are expected to win the match with very few issues and will be looking to do exactly that.

Jorge Sampaoli’s Santos are starting to generate real momentum and there’s a growing feeling around the club that they can compete for the Serie A title, with the benefit of not being distracted by any other competition. Peixe are currently 2nd and have collected an impressive 26 point haul from 11 matches, putting them behind leaders Palmeiras only on goal difference.

Since Serie A resumed following the Copa America break, Santos seemed to have cured their previously irregular away form, winning 1-0 at both Bahia and Botafogo and they’ll now be looking to pick up their impressive home form once again on Saturday. The hosts have won 5 of their last 6 Serie A matches in front of the home crowd and will clearly be in very confident mood coming into this game.

Meanwhile, Avai’s season is going exactly as expected and they look desperately short of the qualities needed to be a competitive outfit in Serie A. The side came into the campaign as favourites for an immediate return to the second tier and are yet to win a game and with just 5 points to their name, it’d be a huge surprise were they to turn things around.

Avai are clearly short on quality all over the pitch and confidence is at rock bottom in their ranks. The side haven’t even managed to score a goal in their last 5 matches and having lost all but 1 of their 6 away games so far this season, it’s hard to imagine them being on the end of anything but a defeat this week.

All things considered, if they want to continue challenging for the title, this is not the type of match Santos can afford to drop points in. A home game against Avai has to rank as one of their easiest games of the season on paper and Santos have quality all over the pitch that is significantly superior to what’s in the visitors’ squad.

As far as the betting goes, backing Santos on the -1 handicap looks the best way to play and is something we’re more than happy to do. This should be the biggest mismatch in Serie A this weekend and Santos should be able to win the match easily, with a 3-0 margin of home victory on the cards. Avai struggle to keep goals out, can’t score them and that only leads to one conclusion here; a heavy defeat.