Velez Sarsfield vs Boca Juniors Predictions

Sunday’s Superliga Argentina action sees Velez Sarsfield doing battle with Boca Juniors at the Estadio José Amalfitani. A close game looks set to be in order, with little appearing like separating the two sides.

It’s fair to say Boca Juniors won’t be the most popular of visitors to the Amalfitani and Velez fans will be looking to make it a hostile atmosphere for them to play in. There’s no love lost between the two after the previously legendary Mauro Zarate jumped ship from Velez to Boca, breaking a promise that he’d never play for another team in Argentina and with that betrayal still raw, the hosts will be desperate to win this one.

On the pitch, the picture isn’t a bad one for Velez and the side remain in a healthy state under Gabriel Heinze. After a strong 6th placed finish last season, the hosts remain one of the more impressive outfits in the Superliga and have made a good start to the season, taking 21 points from their opening 12 games and they come into Sunday’s game unbeaten in 4 matches.

Meanwhile, after losing to arch rivals River Plate in the semi-finals of the Copa Libertadores, Boca can only focus on regaining their hold on the domestic title, having lost it to Racing Club last season. Yet another defeat in to their arch rivals on the biggest stage has undoubtedly affected morale in the visiting camp but isn’t something they can afford to dwell on.

With 24 points to their name after 12 matches, Boca have made a pretty good start to the new campaign and come into this game in 4th place, just a point behind surprise early leaders Argentinos Juniors. Having also lost just 1 of their last 14 away league games, confidence can be high in at least taking something from this game.

Ultimately, we’re expecting this to be a tight and close game. Man for man, Boca are the slightly stronger but there can be no questioning the ability of this Velez team and with a passionate home crowd behind them, they should be highly competitive and able to give the visitors a run for their money.

All things considered, we really like the look of backing a draw in this game and feel it provides good value as far as the betting is concerned. The two sides last met in a two legged Copa de la Superliga tie and it took penalties to separate them after two 0-0 draws and backing them to share a goalless stalemate once again also looks like a good idea, given Velez have kept a clean sheet in their last 4 matches and Boca have only conceded in 2 of their last 9 away games.