River Plate (Montevideo) vs Universidad Chile Betting Tips

Uruguay’s River Plate, not to be confused with their more famous namesakes from across the water in Argentina, are not a particularly big name even in their own country and are making their debut in the Copa Libertadores here so it will be a big occasion for everyone connected with the club.

They finished 3rd in last season’s Uruguayan Primera División to make it through to this first phase but could only finish 5th in the 2015-16 Apertura. They are slight favourites to win this match on the night but underdogs to progress overall and haven’t played competitively in 2 months so there will certainly be some rust to shake off.

Universidad Chile are more seasoned campaigners the Copa Libertadores but had a hard time of it in last year’s competition losing 5 of their 6 matches, conceding 16 goals in those games and could only finish 11th in the Apertura in Chile this season.

Their defensive issues don’t really appear to have been resolved either so River Plate will feel they can cause the Chileans some problems here. Universidad do have the advantage of having had 3 competitive games under their belts already in 2016 and they are unbeaten but have conceded in all of them. They scored 8 goals against O’Higgins only 10 days ago in the league but have only won 1 of their last 7 away games in all competitions in Chile.

A few goals seem a real possibility here given both sides are strong going forward but not great defensively. There have been over 2.5 goals in 11 of the last 12 games involving River Plate and both teams have netted in all of Universidad’s last 5 matches. Therefore consider backing there to be over 2.5 goals in this one at Evens.

Picking a winner is pretty tough here though. Universidad have more continental experience and perhaps a bit more match sharpness but haven’t been very impressive at all over the past 12 months so River Plate have plenty of reason to think they can get a result as they make their debuts in the competition.

Therefore consider backing a 2-1 home win at 9/1 which would leave the tie very finely poised ahead of next week’s Second Leg.