Sports Mole preview Monday’s Brasileiro clash between Botafogo and Avai, including predictions, team news and possible line-ups.
Available travel to Estadio Olimpico Nilton Santos on Monday for their first away win of the 2022 Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A season when they compete there Botafogo.
Both sides, promoted to the top flight last year, are in danger of being relegated to Serie B as Fogo are just a point ahead of Cuiaba in the final relegation spot, while Avai are only ahead of Dourado for scoring a few more Gates.
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Since the start of the new domestic season, Botafogo have struggled hard and played some close games, with six of their nine meetings decided by a goal or fewer.
On Thursday, Luis CastroColombia put up perhaps their worst performance of the year, conceding four goals against leaders Palmeiras to extend their winning streak to four straight games in the competition.
A club with a rich, storied history has made it its mission to retain possession at all costs, aiming to dominate its opponents with pace, according to its new principal owner and American businessman. John Texter.
Although they managed to hold the ball for long stretches, Fogo haven’t done much in terms of possession lately, scoring a goal or less in each of their last four league games.
The club has stressed the importance of maintaining calm and composure on and off the pitch, a sharp contrast to what we’re used to in Brazilian football, in a league built mainly on frenetic and quick decisions by both players and also based on the front office.
Botafogo has often paid the price for being patient, sitting too low on defence, taking chances and conceding the second-most Serie A goals conceded by Brasileiro this year (15).
After a two-year hiatus from top-flight football in Brazil, Avai is just struggling to stay afloat at the moment, having gone five consecutive Serie A encounters without a win.
It’s been over a decade since this team has been able to stay in the premier league for more than a year and the distance between them and relegation is as small as can be.
Most of the time they had to catch up, which usually doesn’t end well for Time da Raca, who have lost every game they conceded first this year.
Avai seem frustrated while struggling with discipline when going behind, and they take that frustration out on their opponents, receiving a red card in two of their last three games.
All of Avai’s points so far have come against teams in the top half of the table, which should give them some encouragement going forward.
Even though we’re only about a third of the way through the season, Edward Barroca knows next week could pay off hugely for his side in their fight to put some distance between themselves and relegation.
In seven days, starting on Monday, they will face two sides just three points ahead of them in the table (Botafogo and Fluminense), interspersed with a home game against bottom-placed Fortaleza.
Botafogo Brasileiro Form:
Botafogo form (all competitions):
Avai Brasileiro form:
Team News
Erisonwho has scored five domestic goals for Botafogo this season but has not scored in his last three games Victor Cuesta scored his first win of the season in the previous home game, coming from behind Diego for second place.
Daniel Borges has two assists to lead her in this category this season while Gatito Fernandez had a challenging goal game on Thursday, conceding four from six shots on goal.
Diego Goncalves will be out until the end of June due to thigh problems, Gustav Sauer continues to be disabled with an ankle problem and Philippe Sampaio could miss another match due to a knee injury.
Avai will be without Diego Matos on Monday because of a red card suspension, Jean Pyrre and Bressan are out with hamstring injuries and Matheus Galdezani is struggling to recover from his knee problems.
bissoli leads Avai with four domestic goals up to this point in the season Kevin collected his first assist of 2022 in the 2-1 defeat at Atletico Goianiense.
On Wednesday we saw Douglas Get the start in goal, switch Vladimirwhile matos, Jean Cleber and Wilhelm Potker replaced Rodrigo Freitas, Arthur Chaves and Morato in the starting eleven.
Botafogo possible starting line-up:
Fernandez; Borges, Cuesta, Canoe, Rafael; Kayak; Hugo, Fernandes, Tche Tche, Sa; Erison
Available starting line-ups:
Douglas; Cougo, Freitas, Raniele, Kevin; Eduardo, Silva, Morato; Romulo, Bissoli, Pottker
We say: Botafogo 1-1 Avai
These teams are practically level up to this point in the season as they have conceded the same number of goals (15) while Fogo has scored 12, which is just one more than Avai.
Both tend to hold back in their end, waiting for an opportunity to strike and given their shyness we expect this competition to be a stalemate as two sides are relatively lacking in confidence at the moment.
For a data analysis of the most likely outcomes, goal scores and more for this game, please click here.
top tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com predict under 2.5 goals in this game. Click here to find out what else they predict for this game and for more of their tried and true football tips.Under 2.5:Data