Novorizontino will host the Guarani team on Monday night, at a time in the São Paulo state league where some teams are under pressure for a positive result.
The competition has a group format, the teams play against teams from the other groups and after the halfway point of the qualifying phase Novorizontino and Guarani need to recover.
Novorizontino
Novorizontino is part of group D, which includes São Paulo, São Bernardo and Botafogo de Ribeirão Preto.
This bracket is well balanced, Novorizontino is third with 9 points, but only 2 less than São Bernardo, second in the table.
The team has 2 wins, 3 draws and one defeat, having scored 7 goals and conceded 5. Their first defeat came in the last round, after 2 consecutive victories, when at home they were beaten by Red Bull Bragantino.
But it wasn’t the first big challenge for Novorizontino, who in the first round had drawn at home with Palmeiras, current state champions, and also had a great victory away from home, over Corinthians, 3-1.
It is a team from which we should not expect a brilliant game, with ball possession, engaging approach and high lines, but rather intensity and verticality.
This is how Novorizontino had a good campaign in the last edition of the Brazilian Championship of the second division, and entered the dispute for the Campeonato Paulista as one of the great forces in the interior.
But it is undeniable that sometimes they’ll suffer a little, needing to be purposeful.
Against Guarani, they will have an obligation to dominate the actions of the match and it will probably be the Campinas team that adopts a lower line game.
Guarani
Guarani, in turn, occupies the last position in group B, which includes Palmeiras, Ponte Preta and Água Santa. Its classification is absolutely compromised, as it has 5 points less than Ponte Preta, its great rival.
In addition to the classification, the team needs to worry about the general table, as today it appears in 12th place and is just one point ahead of Corinthians, who opens the relegation zone.
Bugre comes from 3 consecutive defeats, suffering 3-2 at home to Mirassol, then 2-0 to Santos at Vila Belmiro and in the last match, as home team, they lost to Internacional de Limeira, 1-0.
It is a team that also does not have a great proposition capacity, but technically it is still inferior to Novorizontino, so the tendency is for them to play a more cautious game this Monday.
Conclusion:
I believe that even though Novorizontino is coming off a bad result, it faced other big players in state football and had good results, which is why against Guarani the team enters with favoritism. At bookmakers, Novorizontino is the favorite and their victory will be my option for this round.