In search of their first away triumph of the 2025 Brasileiro Serie A campaign, Juventude will pay a visit to Estadio Cierco de Souza Marques on Monday for a date with Bragantino.
Last weekend, Braga dropped to fourth in the table with a 2-1 loss to the league leaders Palmeiras, while Juve are third from the bottom following a 1-1 draw at home versus Fluminense.
Match preview
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For the first time domestically, all-season Bragantino failed to hang onto an early advantage last weekend, suffering their first league defeat in 2025 from a winning position.
Had they hung onto that advantage they would be all alone in first heading into matchday 10, but instead, they find themselves two points above Ceara for an automatic place in the Copa Libertadores group phase.
Fernando Seabra's men have never suffered consecutive losses in the competition all year, following up their previous league defeat in April with a victory over Botafogo.
With 17 points after nine matchdays, they have accumulated two more points than they had at this stage of the 2024 Serie A season.
Lately, they have been very compact defensively on home soil, posting four clean sheets in their last five competitive fixtures in Braganca Paulista, including a convincing 6-0 win over Criciuma on Thursday.
Under their new name, Bragantino have won two of their last three home games against Juve in this competition, defeating them 2-1 in 2024.
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The Claudio Tencati era as Juventude manager began somewhat positively last weekend, with this team ending a three-match losing run in league play.
This side had lost their previous three contests by a combined margin of 9-1 before Tencati's appointment, so even a single point must have felt like a minor win.
Two of their next three Serie A affairs take place away from home, where this team have had a miserable season thus far, conceding a combined 16 goals in four outings while scoring only once.
If there is a silver lining in all of that it could be that despite all of their struggles the club from Caxias do Sul are just a point below the relegation line.
Finishing matches strong has been a problem for them in the competition this year, as they have dropped seven points in Serie A after netting the opening goal.
Verdao have not claimed points in successive league fixtures since winning two of their final three matches in the previous campaign.
Team News
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In their defeat to Palmeiras, Bragantino were without Nathan Mendes and Lucao, who had a lower leg and ankle injury respectively, while Henry Mosquera had a hamstring strain and Fernando was dealing with tendonitis.
Gabriel had the opening goal of that match for the home side, but it was not enough, as they conceded twice in the final 18 minutes.
A thigh problem kept Felipinho out of the Juventude lineup against Fluminense, Cipriano was sidelined with a sore hamstring and Gilberto will sit out of this match after receiving another yellow card last week.
Emerson Batalla, currently on loan from Talleres in Argentina, had their only goal of that contest, but his team gave up the equaliser three minutes later.
Bragantino possible starting lineup:
Cleiton; Hurtado, Henrique, Rodriguez, Capixaba; Ramires, Gabriel; Barbosa, Borbas, Vinicinho; Pitta
Juventude possible starting lineup:
Gustavo; Reginaldo, Angel, Paulo, Ruschel; Batalla, Jadson, Nene, Giovanny; Babi, Taliari
We say: Bragantino 2-1 Juventude
Braga have shown tremendous resilience this season, and we believe their attack will be too much for the visitors to handle, even despite the baby steps forward that Juve took last week.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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Joel Lefevre
