Bahia vs Santos Predictions

Saturday’s Brazilian Serie A action sees Bahia going up against Santos at the Estádio de Pituaçu. The hosts will be looking to maintain their excellent home form with another strong showing.

Bahia can be relatively pleased with the work they put in prior to the Copa America break, progressing to the quarter-finals of the Brazilian Cup as well as taking 14 points from 9 matches, leaving them in 8th place in the Serie A standings; a position they’ll be aiming to further improve on

Whilst their away form remains questionable, Bahia are particularly impressive as hosts and that leaves confidence high coming into this game. Tricolor have long since been regarded as a tough team to visit on the road and they’ve definitely been that in recent months, recording victory in their last 10 matches in front of their own fans.

Meanwhile, despite being 2nd in the league, after amassing 20 points from 9 matches, Santos boss Jorge Sampaoli hasn’t fully won supporters over yet and still remains under a degree of pressure. Indeed, whilst Santos’ league showings have been strong, they’ve been knocked out of both the Copa Sudamericana and the Brazilian Cup and that hasn’t gone down well with fans.

Now with only league football to focus on, Santos will be aiming to challenge at the top end of the table over the next few months and it’s games like this one they need to be taking points from if they are to do so. Like Bahia, Peixe tend to be stronger at home and the fact that they’ve failed to score in 3 of their last 4 outings on the road hardly has them brimming with confidence coming into the game.

Ultimately, though on paper the teams seem fairly evenly matched, you have to fancy Bahia to win the game. They are incredibly strong and consistent on home soil and face a Santos team that is far from a powerful outfit on the road, despite their decent start to the season.

All things considered, backing a home win looks the best way to play as far the betting goes and is exactly where our money is going at current prices. Bahia have won this fixture in each of the last two seasons, have scored an average of 2.1 goals a game over their last 10 home matches whilst keeping 7 clean sheets and we think they’ll be able to run out 1-0 winners.