Fortaleza will welcome Atlético Mineiro to the Presidente Vargas Stadium in the Copa do Brasil as the home side have mountain after mountain to climb if they are to make it into the final here as Mineiro boast a 4-0 lead.
The clubs met in the first leg of the Copa do Brasil just last week in what was one of Fortaleza’s worst performances of the season as they fell 3-0 down inside the first half on away soil.
Goals from Guilherme Arana, Hulk and Rever gave them this convincing lead before the first half concluded.
Matias Zaracho ended all hope for the away side with a goal just two minutes into the second half as Mineiro took a 4-0 lead and there was no way Fortaleza were coming back from this.
The club could have netted one goal inside the remaining 90 minutes to give them a chance, but they couldn’t even manage that.
In truth, if Juan Pablo Vojvoda’s men could just not turn up and play this game and accept the 4-0 defeat, they probably would as the odds are stacked so tremendously against them to advance to the final.
Elsewhere in the Copa do Brasil, it's all to play for in the second leg between Flamengo and Athletico-PR as the game ended 2-2 in the first leg in what was a memorable encounter as Pedro bagged a penalty 10 minutes into added time.
In this clash, however, expect a slightly weakened Mineiro side simply because of the 4-0 aggregate scoreline, but they won’t put their guard down entirely as Fortaleza have scored 38 goals from 28 appearances in the league.
In fact, back in Serie A, Mineiro are leading the way at the top of Brazil’s first tier and they have done for some time and they are easily the best team in Brazil right now.
The club have managed to score an incredible 44 goals from only 27 games and conceded only 20 - both of these are league-best statistics.
Despite the form shown in the previous Copa do Brasil clash from both sides and the gargantuan mountain Fortaleza have to climb, the game is still expected to be a close one.
In fact, Forebet predicts a game that will see over 2.5 goals and a draw as a weakened Mineiro side may just give the away side a bit of chance.
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