Deportivo Cali vs Guarani Asuncion Predictions

Friday’s Copa Sudamericana first round, first leg action sees Colombians Deportivo Cali doing battle with Paraguayans Guarani. The hosts will be looking to establish an advantage ahead of the second leg.

Deportivo Cali made a good run to the quarter final of the Sudamericana last year and now back in the competition once again, they’ll be looking for another sustained run. Up against Guarani here, El Verde have to be considered favourites over the two legs and will be aiming to put themselves in a commanding position with a strong performance on Friday.

Currently 6th in the Colombian top flight, Deportivo Cali arrive in decent enough shape and although their recent form hasn’t been the best, they returned to winning ways against Cucuta last time out, so confidence should be pretty high coming into the match, particularly because they’ve now won 3 of their last 5 home games, in addition to 3 of their last 4 Copa Sudamericana home games.

Meanwhile, Guarani crashed out of the final qualification round of the Libertadores last season and will be hoping for more luck in the Sudamericana this year. Nonetheless, far from a powerhouse, the Paraguayans aren’t really expected to pull up any trees in the competition and even advancing beyond this first round tie would rank as good work.

That doesn’t look particularly likely however and the visitors have been conceding goals at an alarming rate in recent games. They’ve taken just 1 point from their last 3 domestic league matches and having conceded a huge 12 times in the process, it’s really not hard to see why and their leaky defence leaves their prospects looking bleak.

Ultimately, this is a tie Deportivo Cali will fancy their chances in and taking this match as a standalone fixture, they simply have to be winning it. They’re typically strong on home soil and arrive in better shape than a Guarani outfit that has very little momentum behind it.

Whilst backing a home win does appeal, even better value looks set to be found in backing Cali to clear the over 1.5 team total goal line. We expected them to push forward aggressively from the off and we can envisage them putting the tie all but to bed via a 2-0 margin of victory. Cali have scored exactly twice in 3 of their last 5 home games and given how Guarani have been playing lately, it’s not at all hard to imagine them doing so once again.