River (Argentina) vs Gremio (Brazil)

Three weeks ago, River Plate had enough to claim a highly-celebrated 3-1 home victory over Independiente, with Ignacio Scocco, Juan Fernando Quintero and Rafael Borre finding the back of the net in the second half. Last Friday’s their 32-game unbeaten run in all competitions (21 wins, 11 draws) came to an end as El Millonario lost 1-0 at Colon playing with an alternative line-up. Therefore, River remains on 13 points in the league table with a match in hand (seven points behind leaders Racing Club). At home, the team are on 15 games without defeat, having won nine of them.

Defending champions Gremio did not found difficulties to overcome Atletico Tucuman in the round-of-16. After their 2-0 away win in the first leg, O Tricolor won 4-0 at home thanks to goals from Luan, Cicero, Juan Mercier (own goal) and Jael. Since then, Gremio couldn’t claim any victories (two draws, one defeat) having shared points with America Mineiro after a 1-1 away draw last Saturday, when coach Renato Gaucho rotated his players. The team are sitting in fifth on 52 points, ten behind leaders Palmeiras. Gremio registered two wins, one draw and two defeats on their last five competitive travels.

This will certainly be a hard-fought clash between two of the best teams in America, but both have enough attacking capacity to make it an open game. The totals line is too low and I have to go for it.

BET: OVER 1.75 @ 1.90