Atletico Paranaese vs Junior Predictions

Wednesday’s Copa Sudamericana final, second leg action sees Brazilians Atletico PR and Colombians Junior doing battle. After maintaining parity in a first leg 1-1 draw, it’s the hosts who arrive as favourites to claim the crown.

Having also finished a strong 7th in domestic Serie A action, it’s been a good year for Atletico PR no matter what happens on Wednesday but fans and players alike are desperate to secure what would be the club’s first ever continental title. With a sold out Arena da Baixada crowd expected, Atletico will be able to call upon huge support and will be aiming to use that to full advantage.

That’s something Furacão will certainly be very confident in doing, given how dominant they’ve been on home soil over recent months. This was a final that was always likely to be settled by who used their home advantage to greater effect and having won 15 of their last 17 matches on home soil, Atletico PR are now in pole position to run out champions.

Meanwhile, the first leg will certainly feel like an opportunity missed for Junior and they’ve now left themselves with a huge task. Los Tiburones had far more of the play in last week’s meeting between the two but couldn’t find a winning goal, with several missed chances, including a penalty, leaving them in their current predicament.

Win or lose here in Brazil, Junior can still be proud of the campaign they’ve put together. Nobody expected them to reach the final of the Sudamericana and also 4-1 up in their domestic league final against Independiente Medellin, they’re set to end the year with at least one trophy.

Ultimately, from this point onwards you’ve simply got to fancy Atletico PR to be crowned champions and we cannot envisage them letting the trophy slip now. They’ve done the hard part in avoiding defeat in the tricky first leg and with the more talented squad and now playing on home soil, they should be able to finish the job off.

That’s something reflected in the rather short price on the home win but we still see good value in backing an Atletico PR triumph in combination with it coming with a clean sheet. We mentioned above that Atletico have won 15 of their last 17 home games and 11 of said victories have been to nil and with the hosts also having won 3 of their last 4 home games without conceding, we think they’ll run out 2-0 winners in this one.