Zulia vs Nacional Potosi Predictions

Tuesday’s Copa Sudamericana first round, second leg action sees Venezuelans Zulia doing battle with Bolivians Nacional Potosi. The hosts will be looking to hang onto the 1-0 lead they miraculously secured in the first leg.

Contesting the first leg at a unbelievably gruelling altitude of over 4000 metres, Zulia looked like having no chance when they travelled to Bolivia but they somehow came back with a 1-0 win. Outshot by 54 attempts to 6 and having just one touch in their opponents box, it’s fair to say the side got extremely lucky but now back at a normal altitude on their own patch, they’ll be confident in advancing.

Indeed, Zulia have done the hard part of the job and all they need to do now to secure progression is to complete it on home soil, something they can be fairly confident in achieving. Los Petroleros are pretty strong in front of their own fans, having won 4 of their last 7 home games and that leaves their prospects looking bright coming into the game.

Meanwhile, Nacional will be kicking themselves after doing everything but scoring in the aforementioned first leg. If you repeated the style of match 100 times over, Nacional would probably come out winners every time but they somehow managed to lose and have now left themselves with a mountain to climb.

When this tie was drawn, most expected the Bolivians to be home and hosed well before this second leg but they now find themselves needing to win away from home, which doesn’t look very likely given their poor history in the Sudamericana. Indeed, the visitors have lost their last 4 away games in the competition and having scored just once and conceded 10 times over said matches, it’s clear to see they aren’t a force to be reckoned with on the road in continental action.

Ultimately, we’re as amazed as anyone that Zulia are in the lead coming into this game but they now have to be considered big favourites to advance. Nacional were able to dominate the first leg purely down to the altitude factor and with little between the two in terms of quality on paper, Zulia will be far more in the game on Tuesday.

All things considered, we like the look of backing a home win on Tuesday and feel it provides good value at current odds. Zulia are buoyed by their shock win in the first leg, are typically strong as hosts and face a Nacional outfit that is very poor away from home on the continental stage, meaning a 1-0 margin of home victory could well be on the cards.