Boca Juniors vs Athletico Paranaese Predictions

Thursday’s Copa Libertadores round of 16, second leg action sees Argentines Boca Juniors doing battle with Brazilians Athletico PR. It’s Boca who are in the driving seat after winning last week’s first leg 1-0.

Said match in Curitiba couldn’t have gone any better for Boca and they’ve now put themselves in a great position. El Xeneize travelled to Brazil as big underdogs given Athetico’s home strength, but defended very well and countered effectively to frustrate their opponents, eventually running out narrow single goal winners.

Now on home soil, Boca will be confident in finishing the job off and progressing into the quarter finals, as they seek to win the Libertadores for the first time since 2007. Having won 9 of their last 11 home games in 2019 as well as 7 of their last 8 as hosts in the Libertadores, Gustavo Alfaro’s troops’ power at La Bombonera is there for all to see and has their prospects looking bright coming into Thursday’s game.

Meanwhile, Athletico’s hopes of progressing mainly depended on them performing well in their home leg and having failed to do so, they’ve left themselves with a huge amount of work to do. Renowned for being weak travellers, Furacao will have to pull something special out of the bag if they are to turn the tie around in Argentina.

Boss Tiago Nunes may have ramped up the heat prior to the match, telling supporters to go and bet on his team because they are going to win, but that’s not something that seems at all likely. Indeed, the visitors tend to struggle when away from their artificial home surface and have lost 5 of their last 6 Libertadores away games; including each of the last 4.

Ultimately, this is a tie that can be considered all but over and there looks to be no hope of Athletico coming back. Boca are an incredibly consistent and potent outfit at La Bombonera and should be able to prove so once again, having already got the better of Athletico in the first leg.

All things considered, backing the hosts to win the match looks the best way to play as far as the betting is concerned and is exactly where our money is going. Boca have scored an average of 2.75 goals a game over their last 8 Libertadores home matches and their firepower could well see them run out 2-0 winners on Thursday.