Oriente Petrolero vs Santa Fe Betting Tips

Bolivia’s Oriente Petrolero have home advantage but are the underdogs on the night and overall. Playing in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, they don’t have the altitude advantage that clubs from the other Bolivian cities like Potosi and La Paz boast in this competition. That makes life tough for them and they’ve never really made any impression on the Libertadores.

They went out in the group stage in 2011 and at this 1st stage in their most recent outing two years ago. They did win the home leg of their tie with Nacional on that occasion but went out 2-1 on aggregate after a 2nd leg defeat. They lost to the same opposition in the Copa Sudamericana back in August failing to score in both legs so don’t really have much continental pedigree.

They’ve also failed to win any of their opening 3 matches in the Bolivian league this year and currently find themselves bottom of the table. That should give Santa Fe plenty of encouragement here. The Colombians were 1-0 winners away to Boyacá Chicó in their first league match of 2016 on Saturday and will certainly be looking for a repeat performance here.

They were Quarter Finalists in this competition last year, impressively winning their group ahead of Brazilian, Mexican and Chilean opposition and before disposing of Argentina’s Estudiantes in the last 16. There aren’t often that many goals in their games though and they won’t come here with an overly aggressive strategy given they’ll feel that they will be comfortable winners at home in the 2nd leg.

Both teams scored in only 3 of their 10 games in this competition last year and both teams have netted in only 2 of Oriente Petrolero’s last 8 outings in the Libertadores. 1st legs are often cagey affairs so backing ‘No’ in the Both Teams to Score market at 7/10 could be where the smart money lies here.