Oh, boy, we've got a juicy matchup today! Fluminense is squaring off against Juventude and it's looking as twisted as a pretzel from a third-rate county fair.
Now Fluminense, they've got the super saver Fábio between the sticks, with a nice 7.07 rating, and 4 saves under his belt, while Juventude opts for Gabriel Vasconcelos. Talk about a wall; 7.94 rating and a whopping 26 saves! Fábio might want to take a page out of Gabriel's book or he'll be chasing shadows all day.
In the grand roulette that is football, Fluminense has Jhon Arias and Ignácio sparkling as the marquee men. Arias boasts an 8.00 rating with 1 goal in the bag and a 93.1% accurate pass rate. Ignácio, while not quite the goal scorer, holds a 7.9 rating - that's like finding a diamond in your popcorn. Now on the Juventude side, Nenê and Yan Souto seem to be their shining stars with 7.25 and 7.15 ratings respectively. Neither of these two would feel out of place on a Christmas tree, each with goals this season and pass rates nearing 70%.
In their previous head-to-head, these two had a Mexican standoff that ended Fluminense 1, Juventude 1. Fluminense's regular season performance has them at 7 wins-6 draws-11 losses, with Juventude not too far behind with 7 wins-8 draws-10 losses. Recent form has Fluminense looking chirpier, though, with 3 wins and 1 draw, while Juventude has been more roller coaster, fewer tea cups with 1 win, 1 draw, and 3 losses in their recent run. It's a wonder they're not greener than the pitch with all these ups and downs.
But hey, who am I to judge? Although if we're talking objective numbers here, someone might want to remind Juventude that the objective of the game is to score more goals than the other guys. Maybe they missed that day in Football 101. Just saying.
Albert’s Prediction: Fluminense by 1