Argentinos Juniors vs Estudiantes de Merida Predictions

Thursday’s Copa Sudamericana first round, first leg action sees Argentinos Juniors doing battle with Venezuelans Estudiantes de Merida. The hosts are favourites in the tie overall and will be looking to take the lead ahead of the second leg.

It’ll be a special night at the Estadio Diego Armando Maradona, as Argentinos make their return to continental for the first time since 2011. El Bicho have suffered spells in the Argentine second tier since then, but have got things back on the right track in recent seasons and now find themselves back on the continental stage.

Argentinos are not expected to go too far in the competition and there are certainly stronger sides in the Sudamericana than them, but this is a tie they’ll at least feel they can win and they’re playing quite well in recent weeks. Indeed, they’ve lost just 1 of their last 7 matches, winning 4 times in the process and that leaves confidence high coming into the clash.

Meanwhile, Estudiantes de Merida return to the Sudamericana after appearing in it last year and will be hoping to have more success this time around. The Venezuelans crashed out at this very stage last year at the hands of Chileans Deportes Temuco and will have to cause a big upset if they are to avoid the same fate once again.

Indeed, nothing more than an average side in a Venezuelan league that ranks as South America’s weakest top flight, the visitors look to have their work cut out in this tie and they’ll do well to avoid defeat in this first leg in particular. That’s because they’ve won just 1 of their last 8 away games and clearly aren’t a force to be reckoned with on their travels.

Ultimately, Argentinos are anything but a powerhouse, but they should still have more than enough to beat Estudiantes over two legs. They have resources the visitors can only dream of and man for man, they’re by far the stronger of the two on paper, meaning they should be able to advance with few issues.

Argentinos are rightfully huge favourites as far as the betting goes but value can still be found in backing the hosts to win to nil. Estudiantes have failed to score in 4 of their last 5 away games and set to play in an extremely defensive manner in Buenos Aires, we cannot see them giving Argentinos much to think about defensively and we fancy the hosts to run out 1-0 winners.