Deportivo Cali vs Independiente Santa Fe Predictions

Wednesday’s Copa Sudamericana quarter final, second leg clash sees Colombians Deportivo Cali and Independiente Santa Fe doing battle. All is still to play for after a 1-1 draw in last week’s first leg.

Nonetheless, with an away goal in the bag, it’s hosts Cali who are the happier with the first leg score, knowing a clean sheet on Wednesday will see them into the semifinals. Having kept 5 in their last 7 home matches, that’s something Los Verdiblancos will be confident of doing, but it’s clear the tie is far from over, with an intense 90 minutes of football set to be played.

Coming into the game off the back of a 4-0 win over Jaguares de Cordoba in domestic action, that moved the side within touching distance of the top flight playoffs, spirits are high in Cali ranks. Having already seen off Uruguayans Danubio, Bolivians Bolivar and Ecuadorians LDU Quito to reach this point of the Sudamericana, Guillermo Sanguinetti’s troops have looked strong in the competition thus far, but going one step further is now the only target.

Meanwhile, for Santa Fe, the first leg would surely feel like an opportunity blown and they’ve now left themselves with a great amount of work to do. It was a frustrating evening for Gerardo Pelusso’s men that once again highlighted their struggles in attacking areas, having been criticised all year for their inability to play expansive football.

However, a 2-0 win away at Leones over the weekend has at least provided a confidence boost coming into the trip; with it having ended a run of 4 matches without a win. That being said, the visitors have thus far eliminated Rampla Juniors and Millonarios from the Sudamericana, in ties that saw them draw the away leg 0-0 and as that scoreline would see them knocked out on Wednesday, they’ll have to bring a more attacking, aggressive game-plan to the table, something they are hardly accustomed to doing.

Ultimately, we said this would be a tight tie overall in our preview of the first leg and had great success in backing the draw on the full time line and all things considered, there looks to be no better way to play this time around either.

Cali and Santa Fe are very evenly matched outfits, evidenced by the fact just 1 point and place separates them in the domestic table and with the stakes so high, a tight game is expected to be in order. Santa Fe have drawn 5 of their last 6 Sudamericana outings and unfortunately for them, with Cali so strong defensively on home turf, we can only see them crashing out after a 0-0 stalemate.