Sampaio Correa v Vasco da Gama – Castelao at 20:00
On Friday evening the start of the Brazilian national season takes place, but we’ll be leaving Friday’s games and going straight to Saturday’s second division games.
We’ll be taking a look at the Sampaio vs Vasco game that kicks off at 8pm GMT, in the opening game of the Brazilian Serie B season.
Having been relegated from Serie A last season it’s going to be a challenging season for the state champions of Rio to get back into Brazil’s top flight.
After a tough season in 2015 the club have undergone a big player turn around, their key player this season will be former PSG wide midfielder Nene. With the technical ability of Nene you have to feel that Vasco will have a lot going forward although the experienced player might only manage 25 games this season.
Vasco did win the Carioca championship this season beating Serie A side Botafogo in the final. They’re also hot favourites to regain their Serie A status come the end of the season.
They do however, face off against Sampaio Correa away in the opening game of the season, Sampaio will equally fancy their chances of gaining one of the four automatic promotion places and this is a good opportunity for them to show the rest of the league that they mean business.
Sampaio have usually fell short on promotion due to their poor away form, but their home form is usually one of the best in the top three leagues in Brazil, alongside sides like Bahia and Criciuma.
You have to feel that come the end of the season two of the four automatic promotion places will be taken up by Bahia and Vasco, who have vastly stronger squads than everyone else in the league, but it’s all left to play for in the remaining two places.
I can’t see Samp being beaten at home in their opening game and they’ll probably only lose 1 or 2 home games all season!
Asian Handicap Betting Recommendation: Sampaio +0.25 at 1.79
Prices correct at the time of writing.
By @LewisJones1992
Join Eastbridge for the best prices on world football, now UK licensed!
