Alianza Lima vs Palmeiras Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Friday’s Copa Libertadores action features Peruvians Alianza Lima playing host to Brazilians Palmeiras. It’s the visitors who arrive as hot favourites to collect the points.

As expected, Alianza arrive having struggled to compete in the competition and find themselves eliminated. An opening round 0-0 draw with Argentines Boca offered a degree of promise but 3 consecutive defeats since have consigned Los Blanquiazules to another miserable year on the big stage.

The Peruvians have not even so much as scored in 6 Libertadores outings now, and have remarkably lost 13 of their last 17 games in the competition, following a 1-0 defeat at Junior last week. Things aren’t even going well domestically for Pablo Bengeochea’s troops, who despite coming into the campaign as champions, are well off the pace, seeing the squad come under fire and Bengochea on the verge of losing his job.

Contrastingly, Palmeiras have breezed through the group and are already assured of their place in the knockout round, after an excellent 2-0 win away at Boca last week moved them onto 10 points. Nonetheless, there’s still plenty to play for, as the more points Verdão pick up now, the easier a tie they’ll be given in the next round.

Palmeiras undoubtedly possess a side that looks capable of competing on all fronts this season and look a strong unit under Roger Machado. The visitors were unfortunate to lose the Campeonato Paulista final on penalties earlier on in the year, but have since gone on to remain unbeaten in their opening 3 Serie A matches, leaving confidence high when also taking Libertadores showings into account.

Ultimately, this fixture looks a complete mismatch and we can’t see Alianza suddenly coming into life in the competition and causing the visitors any issues. Alianza have been simply dreadful in recent weeks, with their struggles not even confined to the Libertadores, where they would perhaps be a little more understandable.

Alianza have now lost 4 of their last 5 games to nil, whilst Palmeiras have won 9 of their last 14 fixtures to nil, as well as keeping the ball out in the last 3. Taking those statistics into account and the very little we’ve seen from the Peruvians in the competition, the price on the visiting win to nil makes very little sense and we’re more than happy to get behind it, with a 2-0 Palmeiras triumph on the cards. Alianza do not have the required tools to hurt the visitors and it should be a comfortable evening as they come for the group leaders.