Saudi Arabia vs Brazil Predictions

Friday’s international friendly action sees Saudi Arabia doing battle with Brazil at the King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh. The visitors are expected to claim victory with very few issues.

Despite winning their dead rubber, closing group fixture with Egypt at the World Cup, Saudi Arabia were highly disappointing overall in Russia, crashing out of the group stage thanks to a 1-0 defeat to Uruguay and a 5-0 mauling at the hands of Russia. Whilst they were expected to be eliminated at said stage, the side’s performances were very poor and saw pressure mount on the team.

Nonetheless, Argentine boss Juan Antonio Pizzi remains in charge and is now tasked with leading the recovery from World Cup woes. Throwing away a 2-0 home lead to draw 2-2 with Bolivia in the last international break hardly represents a good start to said aim and lead to Pizzi admitting his team had defensive issues, and with the hosts having now lost 5 of their last 7 outings, confidence cannot be high going into Friday’s match. particularly with an extremely powerful Brazil outfit in town.

As disappointed as Seleção were to lose in the quarter-finals of the World Cup at the hands of Belgium, the manner in which they qualified for it was highly impressive and the fact that boss Tite’s record currently reads won 22, drawn 4 and lost 2 is a testament to the work he’s done since coming in.

With a home Copa America set to come next year, Brazil are looking to build momentum going into it in the matches played between now and then. There was certainly no post-World Cup hangover in the last international break, as the side saw off USA 2-0 and El Salvador 5-0 and picking up another strong result on Friday is the undoubted aim.

Ultimately, this looks a complete mismatch on paper and is likely to prove so on the pitch. Brazil’s squad is one jam packed with world class talent, whereas Saudi Arabia showed in Russia that they don’t have the ability to compete with the planet’s stronger nations.

There’s no value to be found in just backing a straight Brazil win at current odds, but getting behind them to win to nil looks an excellent way to play and is where our money is going. Brazil have now kept a clean sheet in their last 7 friendlies and having won 4 of their last 6 games 2-0, that’s a margin of victory we envisage being repeated against a Saudi outfit highly unlikely to provide an upset.