Santos (Brazil) vs Boca Juniors (Argentina)

Santos are back in the fight for a ticket to the Copa Libertadores’ round-of-16 thanks to their 5-0 home success over Bolivia’s The Strongest last Tuesday. O Peixe took their first three points in this competition to trail second-placed Boca Juniors by three in group C. That victory also stopped their five-game winless run of one draw and four defeats in all competitions. Since then, the team lost 3-2 at Palmeiras on Thursday and beat Sao Bento 2-0 at home on Sunday. As a result, they couldn’t advance to the quarter-finals in the Sao Paulo State Championship.

Boca Juniors suffered a heavy blow last Tuesday, when losing to Barcelona SC 1-0 in Ecuador. Therefore, the team are now second-placed on six points, leading their next opponents by three. On Saturday, coach Miguel Angel Russo fielded a completely alternative XI that also lost 1-0 at Patronato. However, the team ended up in second spot in the Copa Liga Profesional’s group B and made it to the league playoffs. Prior to those two losses, Boca had claimed five consecutive victories in all competitions, two of them on away turf.

Boca has been awful lately and even though Santos has been too irregular and they will have a new coach debuting today, I can’t see them as underdogs here, especially considering Boca will be happy with a draw.

BET: Santos +0.25 @ 1.86