Sol de America vs Botafogo Predictions

Wednesday’s Copa Sudamericana second round, first leg action sees Paraguayans Sol de America doing battle with Brazilians Botafogo. The visitors are big favourites to win the tie overall and will be looking to take home a positive result with them.

Sol de America are hardly a big name on the continent and there’s little expectation on them in the Sudamericana. They are unlikely to make a deep run in it and will have to cause a huge upset to even make it past this round. The Paraguayans needed penalties to advance from their first round tie with Venezuelan minnows Mineros de Guayana and that doesn’t really have you thinking they are ready to step up for a clash against a strong Brazilian opponent.

The hosts don’t look in great shape and aren’t enjoying a very successful year so far. They are currently 8th in the Paraguayan top flight and have lost their last two games, leaving confidence very low coming into this game and it’s fair to say their prospects don’t look the brightest, given they’ve also won just 2 of their last 7 home games, losing 4 times in the process.

Meanwhile, as one of the bigger teams in the competition, Botafogo will be looking to piece together a sustained continental run over the coming months. The Brazilians showed their quality in the first round of action, playing extremely well to win a tough clash with Superliga Argentina runners-up Defensa y Justicia 4-0 on aggregate and they’ll be hopeful of advancing from what looks like a much easier tie on paper here.

Fogo’ are in pretty good shape at the moment and confidence is certainly high in travelling ranks prior to arrival in Paraguay. The visitors have won 3 of their last 4 games and are playing in a pretty consistent manner that has them looking like building on a run which reads 3 consecutive Copa Sudamericana wins in this game.

All things considered, it’s fairly apparently who are the favourites to advance from the tie and you’d also have to fancy Botafogo’s chances on the night. Man for man, they are a stronger and more powerful team than Sol de America, and will be hungry to translate that onto the pitch.

As far as the betting is concerned, it’s hard to see just why Botafogo have been priced as underdogs and great value can be found in backing them on the Draw No Bet line. Sol de America have lost 3 of their last 5 games 1-0, Botafogo have won 2 of their last 3 matches 1-0 and that’s a scoreline we can see being repeated on Wednesday in the Brazilians’ favour.