Betting.Betfair.com
·11 September 2024
Betting.Betfair.com
·11 September 2024
Internacional forward Wesley can help his side hold Fortaleza at home
Internacional v FortalezaWednesday 11 September23:30 BST kick-off
Just one game in Brazil's Serie A on Wednesday as second-placed Fortaleza make the long trip south to visit improving Internacional.
We often forget how big a country Brazil is, with Fortaleza in the north around 2,000 miles from Porto Alegre, home of Internacional, in the south, as the crow flies.
That should give Internacional a decent home advantage against a Fortaleza side who had gone 12 games without defeat until losing their last outing - so they'll be looking for an instant bounce back.
Internacional don't have the best home record but their recent results have been pretty good as they've followed up two draws victories in their last two home outings.
And they're against decent sides too - beating fifth-placed Cruzeiro and drawing with third-placed Palmeiras, while Fortaleza lost 2-0 at leaders Botofogo on their last away day.
Internacional have drawn as many as they've won on home turf, and they know this is a big test against a top side, while the visitors won't want to lose two on the spin so conditions look right for a stalemate.
It's 2/1 on the draw and when you balance up home advantage, form, and the quality of the two teams there's not as much between them as the 16-point gap in the table would suggest (and Fortaleza have played two games more) so will go with a point each from this one.
So we're backing the score draw here, which is priced up at 1/1 as the bookies just about favour one team to keep a clean sheet here.
Internacional have seen both teams score in seven of the last eight at home, and Fortaleza can almost match that with five out of six in away games seeing both sides find the net.
That's resulted in three of the last five Internacional home games ending in a score draw and we're banking on this one being another.
Staked: 56pts Returned: 74.69pts P/L: +18.69pts
2023/24 P/L: +16.78pts 2022/23 P/L: +68.69pts