What the stats reveal about Vasco playing at their rival’s ground?

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Papo na Colina

·12 November 2025

What the stats reveal about Vasco playing at their rival’s ground?

Vasco already has an agreement in place to call the Nilton Santos Stadium home. The club will play its matches there for the next three years while São Januário undergoes renovations. The good news is that the rival’s controversial synthetic pitch doesn’t seem to be a problem for the team.

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Improvement in Performance

A survey conducted by ge and Gato Mestre compared the performance of the Gigante da Colina before and after the installation of the synthetic pitch (March 2023). The numbers show a slight improvement in performance, which rose from 43% to 48.15%.

In the “natural grass” era (2007 to 2023), Vasco had a negative record in 63 matches, with 24 losses and 22 wins, conceding more goals than they scored (83 to 75). On the “synthetic,” the record over 9 matches is balanced: 4 wins, 4 losses, 1 draw, and a zero goal difference (14 goals scored, 14 conceded).

Photo: Reproduction ge

Vasco’s History at the Stadium

Despite the 3-0 defeat to Botafogo last week, Vasco has had happy moments at Nilton Santos. The club won the 2017 Taça Rio at the stadium, beating their rival 2-0, with goals from Douglas and Luís Fabiano.

In this year of 2025, the team played four times at the venue. The Cruz-Maltino advanced in the Copa do Brasil against Nova Iguaçu (3×0) and on penalties against Botafogo themselves. However, they lost to Flamengo (Carioca) and Botafogo (Brasileirão) at the stadium.