Against the Grêmio starting team, Ponte Preta tries on Wednesday, November 8, to leave the relegation zone. In match for the thirty-third round of the Brazilian Championship edition 2017, receives the tricolor in the stage Moisés Lucarelli. The game has kick-off scheduled for 19h30 (Brasília time).

The recent performance of Ponte Preta

On Sunday, November 5, Macaca had a direct duel against a rival in the fight to avoid falling to Serie B. He could not hold Bahia in Salvador, losing 2-0. With 35 points (nine wins, eight draws and 15 losses), the São Paulo alvinegro occupies the eighteenth position in the Brasileirão. It has the same score of Victory, seventeenth placed, and one less than the Sport, sixteenth and first outside the relegation zone.
The ‘Majestic effect’ is the great hope of the Ponte Preta fans. When he plays in the Moisés Lucarelli stadium the team performs much better. It is the tenth best entrant of the Brasileirão with 27 points (eight wins, three draws and five losses) accumulated. The last three were right against Corinthians, leader of the Brasileirão, crushed by 1 to 0 in the day of number 30.
To try to add three more points, coach Eduardo Baptista can count on three important returns. Naldo, midfielder Danilo Barcelos and striker Emerson Sheik, who were out of the match against Bahia due to suspension for the yellow card accumulation, are already in a position to play and must recover their starting positions.
However, he will have to manage the loss of right-back Nino Paraíba, an absolute starter of the team. He received the third yellow card in Salvador and should stay out of the confrontation with Grêmio. Emerson, an athlete of the Macaca base teams, is the biggest candidate to inherit the position.

The current form of Grêmio

The tricolor gaucho set a goal below the capacity of their team to the final stretch of the Brasileirao. Of the remaining 18 points, he hopes to win nine. Thus, the technical team of Grêmio believes that the team will get a place among the top four and will reach, through the competition, a place in the group stage of the 2018 Copa Libertadores of America.
Of course, it is only a ‘Plan B’. The great gremista goal is really to win the title of the 2017 edition of the continental tournament and, thus, to guarantee the right to play the title again next season, obviously the most important: to place another trophy in its wide gallery of achievements .
This priority given to the continental tournament has undermined Grêmio’s chances of an even better performance in the Brasileirão. This fact was admitted not only by coach Renato Gaucho, who finds it impossible to win the two tournaments, as by athletes like the experienced goalkeeper Marcelo Grohe.
On Sunday, November 5, with the starting team, Grêmio managed to defeat Flamengo, by 3 to 1, in Porto Alegre. He climbed to third with 54 points (16 wins, 6 draws and 10 losses). They are eight less than Corinthians, the leader. With six rounds to contend, there is still a mathematical possibility of reversing the situation, but that chance is overlooked by the Gremists.
As the Libertadores’ decision against Argentina’s Lanus is still far away – the first match will only take place on the 22nd, Renato Gaucho will use the Brasileirão’s duels as training for the decision. He put all the headlines he had at hand against the red-black and must repeat the strategy before the Ponte Preta.
However, you will do this without taking risks. In a bruising recovery process, striker Barrios, left-back Cortez and striker Arroyo returned to training with their teammates this week, but they still should not be used against the Macaca. They should gain extra time to improve their physical fitness before being listed in Brasileirão matches.

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History of the bouts between Ponte Preta and Grêmio
There were 30 matches in which Ponte Preta and Grêmio have been face to face in the Brasileirão since 1972. The gauchos have won 12 of these matches. The list includes the 3 to 1 marked in the first round of the Brazilian Championship of 2017. The other 18 clashes are divided in victories of the Macaca and equalities.

The mood of the teams is completely different. While Ponte’s athletes are under pressure and facing consecutive games as decisions, the gremistas only count the days for the confrontation of the Liberators. That difference may be fundamental in Wednesday’s match and makes the guess of the owners of the house the most appropriate.
Macaca’s success allows you to multiply the investment by 2.75 in Bet365. Draw presents prize of 3,10 and victory of Grêmio yields 2.62 by 1.