Bahia vs Palmeiras Predictions

Sunday’s Brazilian Serie A action sees Bahia and Palmeiras going head to head. A close game is expected to be in order with the twos sides appearing difficult to separate.

Whilst they’re unlikely to be relegated, hosts Bahia are not completey out of the battle to avoid the drop; currently sitting in 13th place, 4 points above the bottom four. It’s been a fairly underwhelming campaign for Tricolor overall and the objective for the remaining games has to be simply retaining their top flight status.

It’s not hard to see where Bahia’s problems are coming, and that’s away from home, so confidence will be pretty high going into Sunday’s game. Just 6 of Bahia’s 28 point total has came from games contested on enemy territory and it’s the side’s impressive home record that’s been keeping them out of danger. Having lost just 2 of their last 28 home games across all competitions, it’s clear that Bahia are a real force to be reckoned with at the Itaipava Arena Fonte Nova and they’ll be looking to prove that once again in this clash.

The task at hand won’t be an easy one however, with a resurgent Palmeiras team in town. Verdao had looked well out of the title reckoning prior to Luiz Felipe Scolari returning for another stint in charge but have since shot up the table with some strong performances under his watch, currently 3rd and just 3 points behind leaders Internacional.

Nonetheless, the visitors have bigger fish to fry than league matters and with an important Copa Libertadores game to come in midweek, a host of changes are expected to be made in this trip. As strong as Palmeiras’ squad is, that will affect their chances of winning the match but having lost just 1 of their last 10 outings away from home across all competitions, morale in travelling ranks is still fairly high all the same.

Ultimately, as strong as Bahia are on home soil, they’d be hard pressed to go toe to toe with Palmeiras’ first choice team at the present moment but the likely rotations set to be made in the visitor’s line-up should culminate in a fairly even 90 minutes of football.

As such, despite Palmeiras being fairly large favourites as far as the betting is concerned, we see far greater value in backing the draw and at a more than reasonable price, that’s exactly where our money is going. Bahia have drawn 5 of their last 11 home matches and considering the fact that Palmeiras have kept a clean sheet in 5 of their last 6 away from home, a 0-0 stalemate looks the most likely full time score, all things considered.