Atletico Paranaense (Brazil) – Belgrano (Argentina)
Athletico Paranaense showed a great display of effort to beat Cerro Porteno 2-1 at home in the return leg of the Copa Sudamericana playoff, making it 3-2 on aggregate to reach the round of 16. On Sunday, O Furacao drew 2-2 away at SC Internacional to accumulate 29 points in the Brazilian league table, occupying one of the Sudamericana places at the moment. Overall, the side lost only one of their six matches, winning four and drawing one in that time. Paranaense lost 2-0 to Gremio FBPA in their last home match to stop a three-game winning streak at Arena da Baixada.
Belgrano secured a massive 2-1 away success over SC Internacional at Estadio Arena Barueri to finish the group stage as pool C winners on 12 points, one above their last opponents. On Friday, El Pirata drew 1-1 at home against Union Santa Fe to make it 16 points in ten Liga Profesional rounds, four behind leaders Huracan. Overall, Juan Cruz Real’s men lost only one of their last nine in all competitions, winning five and drawing three. On away turf, Belgrano are winless in the last three with two stalemates and one defeat.
Belgrano has been solid lately with only 2 defeats in the last 14 games and in 12 of those games they’ve scored at least once. Atletico Paranaense is going through an irregular season, it’s been 18 games since the last time they were able to win by more than 1 goal, so this handicap looks big and I expect Belgrano to cover it.