Rio's Botafogo and Minas Gerais Cruzeiro will face each other in a Brazilian League clash of titans on Wednesday night in Rio's Joao Havelange stadium.
Both teams are having great results in the tournament. Botafogo is ranked fourth with 34 points, while Cruzeiro is the runner-up with 39 points.
The two teams both need the victory to get closer to the League's leader, Gremio, which has 44 points.
The two teams are in the best group of G-4, which qualifies to Libertadores Cup next year. Cruzeiro got in G-4 since the first round, but Botafogo only got in the group last Sunday.
Botafogo has not lost a match since July 20 and has the advantage of the home field. It lost only one match in the Joao Havelange stadium in the entire tournament.
Cruzeiro has won all four matches against other Rio's teams in this year's tournament. It also has one of the League's top scorers, striker Guilherme, who scored four goals in three matches against Botafogo.
However, some of Botafogo's players will to be absent from the match. It's keeper Castillo of Uruguayan is defending the goal for the Uruguayan national team at present, and Alessandro, Renato Silva, defender Espinoza, midfielders Fabricio, Charles, Wagner, and striker Romulo are all injuried. And midfielder Ramires is in Beijing with Brazil's Olympic football team.
(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2008)