Bahia vs Botafogo FR Prediction: Fogão will advance to the next round

As the Copa do Brasil continues to heat up, Bahia will face off against Botafogo FR at the Arena Fonte Nova for the return leg of their round of 16 clash. Their first leg encounter ended in a 1-1 draw as both teams settled at stalemates. The game is still open, and the victory could go either way. Please see the carefully prepared tips.

Bahia needs a win in their last 6 games across all competitions with three draws and three losses. Their first leg encounter against Botafogo FR ended in a 1-1 draw as Botafogo got the early lead through Carlos Alberto in the 8th minute of the first half, and Cauly equalized for Bahia in the dying minutes of the first half. The game was evenly matched as both teams went “band-for-band” in the offensive with Botafogo getting 16 shots in the game and Bahia having 11. We expect more of the same piece in this return leg encounter. 

Bahia is also doing well in the Brasileirão Serie A as they are currently in 7th place in the league table with 9 wins, 5 draws, and 7 losses from the 21 league games played. 

Botafogo bounced back to winning ways after that sad defeat to Cruzeiro which brought an end to their 8-game unbeaten run. They secured a 1-4 victory against Atletico GO which catapulted them to the top of the Brasileirão Série. Botafogo is currently top of their domestic league with 13 wins, 4 draws, and 4 losses from a total of 21 games played. They drew the first blood in the first leg encounter against Bahia with Carlos Alberto finding the net for Botafogo in the 8th minute of the game. Unfortunately, they were unable to maintain their lead as Bahia equalized in the dead of the first half. Manager Artur Jorge has a lot of work to do as regards this game. 

A closer look at their last 21 encounters shows that Bahia has won 11 of those encounters while Botafogo has won 6 with 4 draws.

Both teams have met twice this season, once in the league and the other in the first leg of the Copa do Brasil which occurred last week. Bahia won the first-leg encounter with a 1-2 scoreline. Bahia is without a clean sheet in their last five meetings as it’s always a tough encounter whenever these two teams clash and as such, we envisage both teams finding the net here just like in the first leg. 

There have been more than three goals in 4 of their last 6 meetings and with the importance of this game, we might see over 2.5 goals here. A more conservative option is a minimum of two goals from either team. Botafogo is our favorite for the win if we take into consideration their form this season and a bet on them advancing to the quarterfinals isn’t far-fetched. Lastly, there have been less than 10.5 corners in 9 of their last 10 encounters and we can expect a similar result at the Arena Fonte Nova.