Palmeiras – Cruzeiro SOCCER PICKS
Palmeiras and Cruzeiro meet at Allianz Parque, in a match for this phase of the Copa do Brasil (Semi-finals). The history of direct confrontations played in this stadium is favorable to the home team, which in the last 4 matches won 1 and drew 3. But the last time these two teams played a match in this stadium, on 10-30-2017 , for Serie A, the two teams tied by (2-2). M. Borja (35 ‘e 86’) scored the goals of the match, for Palmeiras, and Juninho (6 ‘Autogolo) and Robinho (64’), for Cruzeiro.
Palmeiras:
Until reaching this phase of the Copa do Brasil (Semi-finals), the home team eliminated: Bahia and América Mineiro. The team comes to this match after a home win against Atlético PR by (2-0). In the last 10 home matches for all competitions, Palmeiras won 7, drew 1 and lost 2.
For this competition, he does not lose 4 games. Their attack has scored regularly, since they have scored goals in 3 of the last 4 matches for this competition.
Palmeiras is a club that has already won the Brazilian Cup three times, the most recent title being in 2016, as well as nine titles from the Brazilian Championship Series A and one from the Copa Libertadores, won in 1999. This season , the team is doing a good campaign in the Brazil Cup, having achieved two victories and two draws in the previous qualifiers. In the last five games that Palmeiras played in their stadium, if we take into account the three competitions that they dispute, they scored more than 0.5 goals in the second half in all. We believe that in this match, because it is a classic and a game to be eliminated, Palmeiras will play another game in which goals will be scored in the second half, as it has a strong offensive sector, capable of finding spaces even against to teams with strong defenses.
Cruzeiro:
The visiting team reaches this phase of the Copa do Brasil (Semi-finals) after having played previous eliminatory matches with: Santos and Atlético PR. The team comes to this match after a draw away with Botafogo by (1-1). In the last 10 away matches for all competitions, Cruzeiro won 3, tied 4 and lost 3. The team allowed goals in 3 of the last 4 matches, so it has not presented great defensive solidity, but its attack has scored regularly, since they have always scored at least one goal in the last 4 matches for this competition. In their away matches there is a tendency for few goals, since 29 of the last 69 matches have ended with Under 1,5 goals and 48 out of 69 have ended with Under 2,5 goals. In 15 games, he suffered the first goal 9 times and only managed 2 comebacks.
The Cruzeiro is a mining club that was already four times Brazilian Champion of Serie A, the last time in 2014. The mining club has already won the Copa Libertadores twice in its history. Currently, the club disputes the Brazilian Serie A Championship and is in the seventh position of the table, much due to the fact that it is saving some players, since it is competing in several competitions, including the Brazilian Cup. In this edition of the Brazil Cup, Cruzeiro made good away games: beat Atletico Paranaense 1-2 and Santos 0-1. In those two games the team scored goals in the second half, showing that in the first part gives more attention to the defensive part and in the second part greater importance to the attack.
