Atletico Mineiro vs La Equidad Predictions

Wednesday’s Copa Sudamericana quarter final, first leg action sees Brazilians Atletico Mineiro doing battle with Colombians La Equidad at the Estádio Independência. The hosts arrive as huge favourites to win the match and are expected to do so without any issues.

After crashing out of the Copa Libertadores in disappointing fashion, Atletico Mineiro are now amongst the favourites to win the Sudamericana and will be desperate to do exactly that. The Brazilians are one of the biggest names left in the competition and have thus far met all expectations in it, dispatching of Chileans Union La Calera and compatriots Botafogo to reach this point.

Galo are running along nicely at the moment and come into Wednesday’s game in good shape, currently stationed 4th in Serie A and having won 3 of their last 4 matches. Having also won 4 of their last 5 home games, Atletico are very clearly a tough team to visit and that leaves confidence high in them securing a positive result in this first leg to take with them into the return fixture.

Meanwhile, visiting La Equidad are minnows in Colombian football, never mind on the continental scene and even reaching this point of the competition ranks as good going. Nonetheless, having played Independiente FBC, Deportivo Santani and Royal Pari so far, the luck of the draw has certainly been on their side and now they face a huge step in class against a real giant.

It’d be a massive shock if La Equidad were able to win this tie and no upset looks set to be forthcoming, with the team in very poor form. Indeed, the visitors are currently second bottom of the closing phase of the Colombian top flight, with just 4 points from 6 games to their name and having lost their last 4 away games, confidence simply cannot be high in visiting ranks.

Ultimately, this is about as David vs Goliath as a continental tie can get and even imagining Atletico crashing out is almost impossible. They have quality and resources La Equidad can only dream about and the best the visitors can realistically hope for is keeping the aggregate scoreline respectable.

All things considered, backing Atletico on the -1 handicap looks the best way to play and is exactly where our money is going. They’ll want to all but put things to bed on home soil and having scored exactly twice in their last 5 home games, we think they could well run out comfortable 2-0 winners..