Chapecoense vs Flamengo Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Sunday’s Brazilian Serie A action sees Chapecoense hosting early pacesetters Flamengo. The visitors arrive as big favourites and will be hoping to maintain their strong start to the season.

Having lost both league games to Flamengo last season, as well as going out of the Copa Sudamericana to them, it’s fair to say Chape fans won’t be relishing the prospect of having the side from Rio in town. None more so than because their side have made a poor start to the new campaign, making pre-season predictions for a season of struggle look accurate thus far.

Gilson Kleina’s troops are yet to record victory after 4 games and have not won in 7 across all competitions, leaving confidence in the camp low. Verdão were hammered 5-1 in their Serie A opener at Atletico PR and whilst a goalless draw at Palmeiras was a good result, home stalemates against Vasco and newly promoted Parana respectively leaves question marks as regards the team’s strength at the Arena Conda.

Meanwhile, after a typically chaotic start to the year, Flamengo look to have finally found some stability from an unlikely source, in the form of caretaker boss Maurício Barbieri. Barbieri came in temporarily after Paulo Cesar Carpeggiani was sacked and currently 8 matches unbeaten, there’s little reason to change what is starting to look like a winning formula.

League-wise, Mengao are the early pacesetters and lead the pack at the time of writing, after putting together a run of 3 straight wins following an opening day draw at Vitoria. Defensively, the visitors are looking water tight and are remarkably on a run of 6 clean sheets in a row across all competitions, something they’ll be looking to maintain in this trip to Chapeco.

Ultimately, you have to side with the team coming into the clash with momentum and that’s undoubtedly Flamengo. It’s been quite a while since there was such a positive feeling around the club and whilst it’s certainly still early days, Chape don’t look an outfit capable of putting a halt on the visitor’s run.

As such, backing Flamengo to win the match provides good value, and that’s where our money is going. They look a far stronger side than their opponents at both ends of the pitch and that should be apparent come full time, with a 1-0 visiting win looking on the cards, a scoreline worth backing in addition to our main tip for the match.