Corinthians vs Racing Club Predictions

Thursday’s Copa Sudamericana first round, first leg action sees Brazilians Corinthians doing battle with Argentines Racing Club. The hosts will be looking to make home advantage count in order to establish a lead to take with them into the second leg.

Corinthians haven’t made the most promising of starts to 2019 and will be looking to use Thursday’s game to generate some momentum. Fabio Carille, who lead Timao to the 2017 Brazilian Serie A crown, is now back in command but it’s fair to say his return has thus far not had the impact expected and failure to progress from this tie could see pressure mount.

Under Carille in 2017, Corinthians were an excellent outfit, particularly on home soil and that’s something the side will be aiming to recapture. Last season’s below par campaign was mainly caused by his departure and whilst his return is undoubtedly good news, it hasn’t been particularly smooth up until this point, having recorded just 2 wins from 7 competitive outings, so improvement is definitely needed on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Sudamericana isn’t really the priority for Racing at the moment and several changes could even be made for the clash. Currently fighting for the domestic Superliga title alongside Defensa y Justicia, Racing’s attention is mainly on matters back home and whilst they still want to secure a positive result on Thursday, the game isn’t of paramount importance right now.

That’s just as well, because despite having put together an excellent campaign, cracks are starting to appear in Racing ranks. Key winger Ricardo Centurion has been dropped to the reserves after arguing with boss Ricardo Coudet and La Academia also put in a poor showing last weekend, losing 2-0 away to rivals River Plate, leaving spirits pretty low coming into this game.

Ultimately, it’s a huge surprise to see two clubs of such stature drawn against each other at such an early stage of the competition and both teams can consider themselves unlucky with the outcome of the draw. It’s expected to be quite an even tie over two legs, but with home advantage and Racing’s distracted state, Corinthians do have to be considered favourites when taking this match as a standalone fixture.

As such, we’re more than happy to back a home win and think that Corinthians will be able to break out of their relatively poor form. They’ve lost just 3 of their last 15 home games, winning 7 times in the process and with that in mind, a 1-0 home win may well be on the cards.