Independiente Santa Fe vs Rampla Juniors Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Wednesday’s Copa Sudamericana second round, second leg action sees Colombians Santa Fe playing host to Uruguayans Rampla Juniors. Santa Fe are expected to advance to the next round with few issues.

Whilst Santa Fe didn’t stamp their authority on the tie in the first leg, the 0-0 draw collected can hardly be considered a bad result and still has Los Cardenales in pole position to progress. The hosts have dropped into the Sudamericana after a Copa Libertadores group stage exit and will be desperate to avoid going out of continental action all together on Wednesday night.

Santa Fe don’t come into the clash with great momentum after losing 2-0 to Atletico Nacional on home soil at the weekend, but possessing a squad with far greater ability than their opponents here have, confidence is still high in getting the job done. Guillermo Sanguinetti’s troops have long been criticized for playing some of the dullest football on the continent but that could well prove to be an advantage in this tie, with not conceding an away goal a priority; something in which confidence can be high towards achieving having kept 4 clean sheets from the last 5 matches.

Meanwhile, Rampla Juniors have far bigger concerns than the Sudamericana, currently in deep trouble back home on the domestic scenes. The visitors ended the opening phase of the top flight season rock bottom and having underperformed in the intermediate phase, they find themselves in real danger of suffering relegation.

In such a perilous position, Rampla haven’t really been able to enjoy what is their first ever continental campaign, despite knocking out UTC Cajamarca in the first round of the competition. 10 defeats from the last 13 away games, including one by a 2-0 margin in the first leg of the aforementioned tie, certainly has it looking like the end of the road for the Uruguayans and it’s very difficult to envisage a scenario in which they escape Colombia still in the competition.

Ultimately, whilst they’re not pulling up too many trees at the moment and play in an extremely dull fashion, Santa Fe are by far the stronger of these two teams on paper and know they need to secure victory to avoid pressure rising from the stands.

Backing Santa Fe to win to nil looks the way to play and we’re more than happy to back them to progress in typically unspectacular fashion, with a 1-0 margin of victory on the cards. Rampla do not look like posing much of a threat in the gruelling Bogota altitude and whilst Santa Fe are unlikely to run riot in the final third, they should have enough about them to get over the line.