Athletico Paranaense (Brazil) – Racing (Argentina)

Athletico Paranaense showed a good version to beat Belgrano 2-0 away in the return leg of the Copa Sudamericana round of 16, making it 4-1 on aggregate. However, they deflated their performance since then. Last Saturday, O Furacao drew 1-1 against Fortaleza EC at home to occupy 13th spot of the Brazilian league table on 13 points, one behind the last Copa Sudamericana spot. In fact, they won only one of the last five competitive games in regular time, drawing one and losing three. At home, they registered one victory, one stalemate and two losses across the last four.

Meanwhile, Racing Club haven’t found any difficulties to beat Huachipato FC 6-1 at home in their last Copa Sudamericana match and win 8-1 on aggregate. On Saturday, La Academia also won 2-1 against Boca Juniors at home to make it 24 points in the Liga Profesional, six behind table toppers Velez Sarsfield. Gustavo Costas’ men lost only one of their last six in all competitions, winning four and drawing one. Racing lost 1-0 to Atletico Tucuman in their last travel to stop a three-game unbeaten run of two victories and one draw on the road.

Racing comes from winning the derby vs Boca which is always a morale boost and even though they’ve been irregular so far this year, they’ve been quite strong in this competition. Paranaense wasn’t a lot better than Belgrano in the previous round despite the big final score, and I expect them to struggle to beat Racing.

BET: Racing +0.25 @ 2.03