Liverpool Montevideo vs Bahia Predictions

Thursday’s Copa Sudamericana first round, second leg clash sees Uruguayans Liverpool Montevideo playing host to Brazilians Bahia. The visitors will be looking to come back from the 1-0 defeat they suffered in the first leg.

It was a real smash and grab from Liverpool in the first leg, scoring from one of their only chances. Although in truth, the Uruguayans probably did deserve to win the match. Going into the game, they were huge underdogs but showed excellent defensive organisation to limit Bahia to very few clear cut chances, despite conceding lots of possession to them.

The work is far from done, but Liverpool have given themselves a chance of recording what would be a massive upset. Man for man, the hosts are nowhere near as strong as the Brazilians, but now in the lead, they’ll be hoping to see it through at the Estadio Luis Franzini, despite it not being their regular home ground.

Meanwhile, Bahia were seriously below par in the first leg and there was an air of arrogance about their performance, in the sense that it appeared as though they thought they could just go through the motions and win. The defeat will surely have served as a waking call and the need for an improvement on Thursday could not be any more apparent.

Having made the quarter finals of the Sudamericana last season, crashing out at the first hurdle this time around would rank as a huge failure for Tricolor and we expect to see a more focused showing from them. Unbeaten in 5 away games, Bahia certainly have ability on the road and they’ll be desperate to make their superior quality count come full time.

Ultimately, Liverpool did well to win the first leg and put together an effective game plan but asking them to cause such a big shock once again does look a very big ask. In terms of just about every metric, the Uruguayans and the Brazilians are at polar opposite, with Bahia possessing resources Liverpool can only dream about.

Man for man, Bahia are a better team than Liverpool and if they turn up with the right attitude this time around; they’ll win the match. Desperate to avoid a continental exit, we can see the visitors doing exactly that and as such, are more than happy to back an away win, with a 2-1 margin of victory on the cards; a result that would see Bahia advance on away goals.