Gremio vs Vasco da Gama Predictions

Saturday’s Brazilian Serie A action sees Gremio going up against Vasco da Gama. Gremio arrive as big favourites to claim all three points on home soil and will be looking to do exactly that.

With a squad packed full of talent and amongst the strongest in Serie A on paper, it’s fair to say Gremio should be doing considerably better than they currently are and their fans will be looking to see improvement in the coming weeks. After 9 matches, Tricolor are currently in 11th with 11 points, putting them some way behind where they expect to be come the end of the season.

Nonetheless, prior to the Copa America break, Renato Gaucho’s troops were in much improved form, recording back to back league wins and those taking to the pitch will be itching to pick up from where they left off. Having also won 4 of their last 5 home games, the hosts certainly won’t be arriving with confidence particularly low for this game and they’ll be expecting to add another victory to said sequence.

Meanwhile, Vasco made a terrible start to the season and looked to be in for a very tough year, but they’ve improved significantly since Vanderlei Luxemburgo came in as boss. Back to back home wins over Internacional and Ceara prior to the Copa America break lifted the side out of the drop zone and they come into this game currently stationed in 15th, a position they;ll be hoping to improve upon with a strong result.

That being said, with a team that’s still pretty weak on paper, it’s hard to know if the side’s improvement is a flash in the pan or a mark of real progress. Whatever the case, one thing is for certain; Vasco’s away record is a cause for concern and the fact that they come into this trip having lost 5 of their last 6 away games on the road has them looking in for a tough 90 minutes.

Ultimately, this is a match you have fancy Gremio to win and they cannot really afford to drop points in it. Man for man, they are a stronger team in all areas of the pitch than Vasco and it’s hard to envisage the visitors taking anything due to their very poor away record.

All things considered, we like the look of backing a home win to nil here and it looks to provide good value at current odds. Gremio have won 4 of their last 5 home games to nil and having also won their last 2 Serie A matches by a 1-0 margin; that’s a scoreline that looks likely to be repeated once again on Saturday.