Preview: Ceara vs. Coritiba - prediction, team news, lineups

Ceara will host Coritiba in the Brasileirao on Saturday after ending a six-match winless run against Fortaleza on Thursday.

The visitors, meanwhile, are in better form with three wins in five and are currently fourth in the league, which is good enough for qualification to the Copa Libertadores.

Match preview

It has been an incredible return to Brazil's top tier for Coritiba, who were promoted last season after relegation the year before.

With four wins in their opening eight matches, they are pushing for a spot in next season's Copa Libertadores with a lethal attack being the primary weapon.

Saturday's visitors have the joint-second best attack in the Brasileiro with 12 goals so far this season, which has left them just two points off league leaders Palmeiras.

Ceara's start, meanwhile, has not been as good with the league's second-worst defence conceding 11 goals, which might leave Coritiba confident of scoring more.

On Thursday, they managed to end a six-match winless run but with a game midweek, there may be some tired legs out there as opposed to the visitors, who have had a full week to prepare.

The last time these two sides were in the same league was two years ago when Ceara did the double over Coritiba, but many things have changed since then and Saturday's visitors are a much different outfit.

Should results go their way, Coritiba could be top by the end of the weekend but nonetheless, they will look at this match as a particularly important one with some very hard fixtures coming up.

Next weekend they will play Sao Paulo, who Coritiba are level on points with, ahead of a home fixture against Palmeiras a couple days later.

Team News

Ceara will be delighted with the return of Stiven Mendoza, Bruno Pacheco and Geovane, who have all missed out recently due to a yellow card suspension.

Other than that, it is a full clean bill of health for the hosts, who usually line up in a 4-3-3 formation with Cleber leading the forward line.

Coritiba, meanwhile, have a couple of players sidelined through injury, including Thonny Anderson who has a foot problem, and Natanael with a broken leg.

They will also be without Henrique and Luciano Castan, who both miss out through suspension.

Ceara possible starting lineup:

Ricardo; Paraiba, Messias, Otavio, Luis; Richard, Richardson, Lima; Erick, Cleber, Vinicius

Coritiba possible starting lineup:

Santana; Alexandre, de los Santos, Silva, Biro; Soares, Farias; de Souza, Carvalho, Paixao; Gamalho

We say: Ceara 0-3 Coritiba

Coritiba have much more quality than Saturday's hosts and with tough fixtures coming up, they will want to stamp their authority here to give them the momentum going into those games against Sao Paulo and Palmeiras.

They are one of the league's best goalscorers, going up against a team with a leaky defence, so they should have no problem winning this match.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.