An important clash between sides in the middle of the Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A table takes place on Sunday, as Atletico Goianiense welcome Cuiaba.
The hosts are now winless in four games and occupy 11th spot, while the visitors find themselves in a far better patch of form, having stretched their unbeaten run to five league games last time out.
Match preview
© Reuters
After a strong start to the season, Atletico Goianiense have found themselves struggling for consistency in recent months, now sitting in the bottom half.
Eduardo Barroca's side come into Sunday's clash in a run of four league matches without a victory, as they drew with Chapecoense, Internacional and Corinthians.
What could have been the makings of an unbeaten run was then put in a different light, as they were handed a defeat by Sao Paulo last time out, with Matheus Barbosa's second-half goal not being enough to salvage a result after Emiliano Rigoni and Luciano had put the hosts 2-0 up.
That saw Barroca's side drop to 11th place, but with the chance to leapfrog their opponents with a victory, they will be desperate to return to winning ways and kickstart a positive run.
The Dragao are not met with an easy task though, as they welcome a Cuiaba side who are without a defeat in five league games.
Sunday's visitors had an underwhelming first half of the campaign, sitting on 17 points from 16 outings, but Jorginho's side now find themselves in their best form of the season.
They arrested a difficult spell with an eye-catching 2-0 victory over title-chasing Palmeiras, before drawing with high-flying Fortaleza and defeating Santos 2-1.
The Dourado made it back-to-back victories by defeating Juventude 2-1 away from home, thanks to a Juan Quintero own goal and a 67th-minute winner from Jenison, before they played out an exciting 2-2 draw with Fluminense last time out.
Their opponents took a two-goal lead inside the first 20 minutes through Luiz Henrique and Raul Bobadilla, but Jonathan Cafu quickly pulled one back for Jorginho's men before Felipe Marques netted an equaliser in the 76th minute, salvaging a point and extending their unbeaten run to five games.
They will now be keen to keep the momentum going and continue climbing the table with what would be another impressive result.
- D
- W
- D
- D
- D
- L
- L
- W
- D
- W
- W
- D
Team News
Atletico Goianiense will remain without Marlon Freitas, who continues to recover from an injury.
They will be majorly boosted by the return of attacking duo Joao Paulo and Ze Roberto though, after both served suspensions last time out.
Those two will come back in to lead the line in Barroca's favoured 4-4-2 system.
Cuiaba will be without centre-back Marllon, who is suspended after he was sent off in the dying minutes of their draw with Fluminense.
However, they will welcome attacker Clayson back after he was suspended for that game following a red card against Juventude.
He will have to battle for his place in the starting XI though, after wingers Jonathan Cafu and Felipe Marques both got on the scoresheet as they salvaged a point.
Atletico Goianiense possible starting lineup:
Fernando; De Almeida, Wanderson, Eder, Carius; Luis, Baralhas, Maranhao, Natanael; Paulo, Roberto
Cuiaba possible starting lineup:
Walter; Ramon, Paulao, Conceicao, Uendel; Auremir, Camilo; Cafu, Gava, Marques; Elias
We say: Atletico Goianiense 1-2 Cuiaba
Cuiaba certainly come into the game with more momentum, and we see them continuing their strong run of form with an away win.
While the return of Paulo and Roberto will make a big difference for the hosts, we ultimately see them falling short to a confident away side.
Top tip
Sam Varley
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 Atletico Goianiense win with a probability of 43.15%. A draw had a probability of 29.5% and a win for Cuiaba had a probability of 27.35%.
The most likely scoreline for an Atletico Goianiense win was 1-0 with a probability of 14.78%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (8.89%) and 2-1 (7.94%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (13.21%), while for a Cuiaba win it was 0-1 (10.98%). The actual scoreline of 0-0 was predicted with a 12.3% likelihood.
