Vasco and Audax-RJ face each other at the São Januário stadium, in Rio de Janeiro, in a game valid for the 7th round of the Carioca Championship. The duel will be played on the night of this Thursday, February 8, 2024, starting at 9:15 pm.
Vasco
The Vasco team arrives with broad favoritism to win this round, considering that they will face the last placed team in the competition and have a squad that is theoretically much superior to their rival.
However, Gigante da Colina has not won for three consecutive rounds and needs a sequence of victories to be able to enter the dispute for a place in the semi-finals of the competition.
In the last round, Vasco played at Maracanã in a classic with a lot of rivalry against Flamengo. However, the Cruzmaltino team was unable to stand out to the point of finding the opponent’s net and still had an excellent penalty save in stoppage time to secure a 0-0 draw.
In their 5 previous duels, 2 wins, 2 draws and only 1 defeat were recorded. During this period they beat Maldonado and Madureira, drew with Flamengo and also with Bangu, in addition to losing to Nova Iguaçu.
At the moment, the club is in seventh place in the Rio elite, with 9 points achieved so far, only one less than Madureira, who opens the G-4 of the competition.
Acting as home team, the Vasco team has a recent record with 6 wins, 2 draws and only 2 defeats in the last 10 matches played.
Audax
On the other side is the Audax-RJ squad, which in turn is still looking to score its first points in the competition, having not even managed to find the net even in six matches already played so far.
As a result, the team has the worst campaign and also the worst attack in the competition. Defensively, Audax is also among the worst, conceding ten goals in this period.
Their most recent duel was the most frustrating for their team, considering that they played a direct confrontation at home against Bangu and ended up losing 1-0 in a match that could have taken them out of the relegation zone.
However, the club is in 12th and last position on the leaderboard, without any points achieved so far, having one less than Sampaio Corrêa-RJ, which is in second place.
There were 5 consecutive defeats in the last 5 official matches of the season. During this period they ended up getting the worst of it by losing to Volta Redonda, Bangu, Boavista, Fluminense and also Madureira.
Playing away from home, the Audax-RJ team has a recent record with only 1 win, 2 draws and 7 defeats in the last 10 matches played in this condition.
Conclusion:
However, the big favorite to win is Vasco, who will have an excellent opportunity to rehabilitate themselves this season and should enter the field with maximum strength aiming for a big victory to get in front of the pack.