Thursday Football Tips: Expect cards in Brazil

• Card-happy referee takes charge

• Lucas has 9 cards in 25 starts this season

• Add goals leg for 15/28.50 Bet Builder

• Check our our Euro 2024 free-bet offer!

Bahia v Fortaleza
Thursday 13 June, (01:30 Fri BST)

There's one more sleep until Euro 2024 but for those who are simply too excited and will still be awake in the early hours of Friday, find a stream of this game.

Leg 1: Over 5.5 cards

I'm drawn to this match largely by referee Felipe Fernandes de Lima, who is wild carder.

He's shown 16 yellows and one red in his two Serie A games so far this Brazilian season.

Obviously, that's a small sample but he also averaged 7.25 yellows per game last term, while during the recent Campeonato Mineiro state tournament, he produced 54 cards in nine matches.

While it's fair to say both sides are fairly middle of the road for cards, in a league which averages 5.46 cards per game, I'm happy to play over 5.5 in this one due to Mr Fernandes.

Leg 2: Jean Lucas to be shown a card

Bahia are up in fourth for fouls committed so it's no hard to see their players coming under the watchful eye of the match official.

With that in mind, midfielder Jean Lucas is an interesting proposition in the player-card market.

Lucas has more cards than any other Bahia player this season, receiving nine in his 25 starts, so it's a little surprising to see him out at 13/53.60 for another in this game.

Leg 3: Under 2.5 goals

Finally, let's add under 2.5 goals.

Fortaleza's unbeaten start to the campaign has seen just 10 goals scored in their six games with the under 2.5 bet landing in five of them.

As for the hosts, they've seen 3+ goals in just one of their last seven in all competitions.

With both teams in the bottom seven for shots taken, it's not hard to see why they are struggling to score goals and this leg completes our Bet Builder.

The three-fold pays a little shy of 8/19.00 which would be a nice way to head into the Big One.

Euro 2024: Check out Mark Stinchcombe's best bets!