River Plate vs Velez Sarsfield – Velez Sarsfield leads River Plate 1-0 going into Wednesday’s second leg of their Copa Libertadores semifinal, and they may advance to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2012.
Last Wednesday, La Banda suffered their first loss of the tournament, while Liniers had lost their last four road games in all competitions. Not many people predicted River Plate to be held to a goalless draw by Velez Sarsfield, who had allowed the most goals of any team to move to the knockout stage of this year’s tournament.
Los Millionarios had been unblemished in Round of 16 meetings in the Libertadores for ten games, dating all the way back to 2017. River had only conceded the opening goal in this competition once before their loss to Sarsfield, and they were unable to win that match as well, drawing 1-1 with Fortaleza after allowing Silvio Romero to open the scoring in the fourth minute.
The four-time Libertadores winners have never lost a two-leg match in the first phase of the knockout round since they were ousted by Independiente del Valle at this point of the 2016 event.
Marcelo Gallardo has always encouraged his players to take risks with rapid ball movements in a tiki-taka system that has helped his team put their opponents under pressure in the vast majority of their matches.
River Plate vs Velez Sarsfield – Betting Analysis
Most of the time, those strategies have worked out well. But they have recently struggled to shut down the center channels as they typically do, conceding four goals in their last two games across all competitions.
If you want to beat a team like River Plate, you can’t show any fear, and Velez Sarsfield is one of the few teams that looks forward to taking on the Argentine giants. They’ve only lost once in normal time in 10 prior encounters with Sarsfield in this competition, allowing a goal or less on nine occasions.
Last month, the team’s manager, Alexander Medina, took over as head coach and put his players in the middle of the block, using a high-pressure tactic to force mistakes from their opponents.
They were able to get a penalty and take the lead in the first quarter of an hour, which was all they needed to win this match. It is difficult to play against Sarsfield when the visitors score first since they drop back with many men behind the ball and don’t give you many chances in front of goal.
This is the first time El Fortin has lost a game after scoring first since early May, when they fell to Nacional after Emmanuel Gigliotti scored both goals in a 2-1 setback.
River Plate vs Velez Sarsfield – Head -to- Head
Our Prediction: Home Win
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