The visitors did us a favour at the weekend with a 3-2 defeat of Corinthians .............

 

 

Corinthians laboured past Chapecoense 1-0 last night, they should have scored a second, but goals are probably going to tough to come by again and it is a little concerning for Bahia, that they conceded two at home to them. Bahia are another of those chalk and cheese teams in terms of home and away form, they have lost just 4/31 in Lauro Freitas, won only 3/30 on the road. Botafogo are coming off an opening day away loss at Sao Paulo, so will be very focussed on the three points today. They drew too many games here in Rio last season , but only lost twice (10-7-2) and that was the fewest amongst the four Rio clubs who always play a lot of intense derby fixtures, where not losing is #1 priority. The hosts will have Diego Souza able to make his debut this evening, this is big, he could not play against his parent club at the weekend , who he joined last season from Sport Recife, where he had an incredible record, he was "Mr Recife" and in 2017 I wrote ..............

 

 

He scored 12 for SP last year and will be a good addition for Botafogo, he "always" starts the season fast and had six goals in his first nine starts of 2017, 4 and two assists in his opening five for SP, he also likes playing Bahia, his teams are 5-1-1 in his seven starts against them, with Souza notching three goals and two assists. Despite losing 2-0 at SP on Saturday, there was plenty to like about the overall performance and they dominated the game, "winning" completed passes 628-204 , which is a huge number for a road team and not all were "safe", making 65% of circa 50 long balls, they need a little more patience in front of goal, step forward Diego Souza ! Botafogo also have had an extra day to prepare for this and Souza is not the only one making his debut, as this is the first home start for new head coach Eduardo Barroca, who says he has been building towards this since his appointment three weeks ago. He knows the visitors well having spent three seasons with Bahia, Barroca never played professionally which is not hard to guess, as I doubt many people beat him to the head of the queue in the canteen, he has been an assistant coach since 2000 (18yo) and at 37yo, this is his first head role and his motivation to do well is obvious and huge. He spoke yesterday about how valuable that extra day was and I have mentioned this before myself, it is not just 24 hours, it is an additional full training session if you choose to use it and he said:  "I took advantage since Monday to emphasize a lot that we had not yet worked on, we had the opportunity in those three days, more Tuesday and Wednesday, to  turn that possession into real goal opportunities. "We worked hard for this next game." Win today and it has been a good start to his tenure, come up short and he and the club are under huge pressure on Sunday.