Santos vs River Plate Predictions

Tuesday’s Copa Sudamericana first round, second leg clash sees Brazilians Santos and Uruguayans River Plate doing battle. The hosts are expected to advance from the tie, with the scores currently locked at 0-0.

Santos may not be able to call upon their fans for this match, with it set to be played behind closed doors, but they still arrive as huge favourites to claim victory. Even without a crowd, the hosts hold something of a home advantage given the game is at the Estádio Municipal Paulo Machado de Carvalho, which they play at regularly, and with a far stronger side than River Plate on paper, the Brazilians will want to avoid what would be an embarrassing defeat.

Peixe have looked a powerful outfit since Jorge Sampaoli took over at the start of the year and it’d certainly go against the form book if Santos slipped up on Tuesday. Having lost just 1 of the last 10 matches, of which they’ve won 8, Santos are playing really well at the moment and confidence can also be taken from the fact they’ve won their last 5 home matches.

Meanwhile, whilst River Plate were expected to comfortably lose the first leg and did well to hold Santos to a 0-0 draw in it, there’s also the feeling that they really needed to do more in said game, with a trip to Brazil ranking as a severely difficult task.

The visitors are far from big hitters in the Uruguayan game, let alone on the continental scene and it really would be quite something if they could pull off a surprise on Tuesday. Nonetheless, without a win in 5 away games, whilst losing 3 of said matches and conceding an average of 2.6 goals a game, that’s not something that really looks on the cards.

Ultimately, as one of the favourites to win the Sudamericana come the end of the year, this a match Santos simply have to be winning and we fully expect them to do so. Although they showed good battling qualities in the first leg, River Plate saw little of the ball during it and come under sustained pressure, and asking them to survive that once again looks a big ask.

As far as the betting goes, backing Santos to win to nil looks an excellent way to play. They’re in good shape defensively, having kept a clean sheet in their last 4 matches and with River expected to put men behind the ball, the hosts shouldn’t be too troubled defensively in what could well be a 2-0 win.