Two sides in desperate need of all three points face off at the Estadio do Morumbi on Thursday when Sao Paulo prepare for the visit of Santos.
The hosts are looking to end a run of three straight draws, while the away side go in search of a first league victory in over two months.
Match preview
© Reuters
Sao Paulo were involved in a share of the spoils for the third game running following a 1-1 stalemate versus newcomers Chapecoense on Sunday.
Hernan Crespo's men were heading for all three points thanks to Emiliano Rigoni's first-half strike, before Mike restored parity with quarter of an hour left.
With 28 points from 23 outings, O Clube da Fe are in 12th place at the moment less than six months after their fourth-placed finish last term.
Their next task comes against an opposing side who have had the upper hand in recent meetings between the sides, winning 10 of the last 20 clashes overall.
Off the back of a 2-0 loss at the Urbano Caldeira back in June, Thursday's hosts now set out to exact revenge and prevent their visitors from completing a league double.
© Reuters
Santos' downward spiral continues as they suffered a comprehensive 3-0 defeat versus fellow strugglers Juventude at the Estadio Alfredo Jaconi two Sundays ago.
Ricardo Bueno opened the scoring on the stroke of half time, before further goals from Dawhan and Guilherme Castilho put the seal on a disappointing afternoon for Fabio Carille's men.
Four points adrift of their next opponents, the Alvinegro Praiano are in the relegation zone as things stand and in need of a pick-me-up.
Having found the back of the net in just one of their last seven matches across all competitions, Thursday's visitors will have to get going at the attacking end to stand any chance of prevailing in this one.
- D
- L
- W
- D
- D
- D
- L
- L
- W
- D
- D
- D
- D
- L
- L
- D
- D
- L
- L
- L
- D
- L
- D
- L
Team News
© Reuters
Both teams have a considerable number of players ruled out of this one with no fewer than 11 players potentially set to miss the clash.
With the two managers lining up in a 3-4-3 formation last time out, it remains to be seen whether either of them will change things ahead of this one.
Thiago Couto, Igor Vinicius, Luis Orejuela and William missed the hosts' last outing and are all unavailable for Thursday's high-profile contest.
Midfielder Jobson remains without an appearance for the away side this term, while Robson Reis, Sandry and John have only featured in 10 games combined.
Seventeen-year-old Kaiky Melo is set to sit out a 10th consecutive match, and he is joined on the sidelines by fellow compatriots Madson and Luiz Felipe.
Sao Paulo possible starting lineup:
Volpi; Leo, Miranda, Arboleda; Welington, Nestor, Niziero, Galeano; Rigoni, Eder, Luciano
Santos possible starting lineup:
Paulo; Leonardo, Velazquez, Boza; Jonatan, Sanchez, Camacho, Para; Mota, Marinho, Baptistao
We say: Sao Paulo 2-1 Santos
Playing on home turf, the onus is more on Sao Paulo to seize the initiative and claim all three points against an out of sorts opponent. We fancy the hosts to live up to expectations and come out on top, albeit by only a narrow margin.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Sao Paulo win with a probability of 49.08%. A draw had a probability of 26.5% and a win for Santos had a probability of 24.43%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sao Paulo win was 1-0 with a probability of 13.17%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (9.62%) and 2-1 (9.09%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.45%), while for a Santos win it was 0-1 (8.53%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with a 12.5% likelihood.
