Sport Recife vs Flamengo Predictions

Sunday’s Brazilian Serie A action sees Sport Recife doing battle with Flamengo. With both sides still having something to play for, a close game is expected to be in order.

Just a month ago, after a 4-0 defeat at Atletico PR, which was their 14th in 19 matches, Sport Recife looked dead and buried; destined to be playing Serie B football next season. However, since then, Milton Mendes’ troops have hit form at just the right time and now find themselves a point outside the drop zone, a position they’ll be desperate to maintain in the remaining 4 matches.

Unbeaten in 5 matches, confidence is running high in home ranks and if Leão can maintain their performance levels, they should be able to keep their heads above water. Having also lost just 1 of their last 7 matches on home soil and won 3 of their last 4 outings there, Sport come into Sunday’s match with plenty of reasons to believe they can pick up a positive result.

Meanwhile, for as long as there is the smallest of chances they can run out champions, Flamengo have to go into every game targeting 3 points. 7 points adrift of leaders Palmeiras with just 4 matches left to play, the title is likely out of Megao’s reach now but they showed in midweek they are not giving up the chase, returning to winning ways with a scrappy 1-0 victory over Santos.

Flamengo had lead the way at the top of the pile for much of the season and have undoubtedly been one of the strongest sides in the division this year, but they’re now paying for a rough patch of form under Mauricio Barbieri, something that current boss Dorival Junior has tried to make up for, losing just 1 of his 8 games in charge thus far, but looks like falling just short in achieving. .

Ultimately, although Flamengo are stronger of the two sides, evidenced by the 25 point gap between them in the table, we think this will be quite a competitive 90 minutes. Sport are in much improved form and have looked a tough nut to crack on home soil over the last weeks.

With Flamengo a far stronger outfit on their own patch, evidenced by the fact they’ve won just 5 of their 17 away games this term, Sport should be more than a match for them and as such, it’s backing the draw that’s captured our attention at an appealing price. Indeed, Sport have drawn their last two matches 0-0 and that’s a scoreline we envisage being repeated come full time on Sunday.