Independiente Santa Fe vs Sporting Cristal Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Reigning Colombian champions Independiente Santa Fe will be seeking to get their Libertadores campaign underway in this one. The game comes after last week’s defeat to The Strongest in what is always a difficult challenge in the high altitude of La Paz. It was a deserved defeat, they looked to sit deep throughout and play on the counter but were eventually unpicked and fell 2-0.

That match was a rarity, in the sense that Santa Fe actually conceded a goal. The Strongest’s double was the first that goalkeeper Leandro Castellanos had conceded in an astonishing 10 games. He was rested at the weekend, but his side picked up another clean sheet in a 0-0 draw at Deportivo Cali. Santa Fe are still yet to concede a goal on home soil this year, and will be hoping to keep it that way in this fixture.

Sporting Cristal meanwhile made quite a decent start to the group but will be disappointed not to have won their home tie with Santos. The score was a fair one, with the match even in the majority, but Cristal held the lead until the 67 minute before Santos finally broke through. They really could have done with the win to aid their chances of qualifying for the knockout phase, something they’ve been unable to do since 2004.

While not beating Santos is excusable, some of the sides other performances are not. After winning 3 of their first 4 league games, the side is now winless in 4 domestic encounters, including an embarrassing 4-1 defeat on home turf to newly promoted Academia Cantolao, who as of now, still only have 5 points from 7 games.

With just 3 wins in from their last 15, Cristal simply cannot be coming here with any confidence. By contrast Santa Fe have now only lost 2 of their last 21, and are keeping clean sheets with astonishing regularity. They’ve also kept clean sheets in 5 of their last 6 Liertadores home games and it would be a major surprise to the Cristal manager to notch here.

As good as they are defensively, Santa Fe are hardly a free scoring side – they’ve scored just 6 goals in 10 games this season. This has a low scoring home win written all over it, and at 15/8 that looks a fantastic price. Back the hosts to win the game 1 or 2 nil, something which has happened in their last 8 home wins.