Estudiantes (Argentina) – Barcelona (Ecuador)

Estudiantes fans must have felt devastated after their 2-1 away defeat at Barcelona SC in the first leg last Tuesday as the team conceded in the 78th minute. Now they need to win at home in order to keep their hope alive. Last Saturday, El Pincha succumbed to a 3-1 away defeat to River Plate, which means they remain in seventh spot of the Liga Profesional table on 39 points, trailing the last Copa Libertadores berth by three. Eduardo Dominguez’s men have been winless in their last five matches in all competitions, drawing three and losing two in that spell. At home, Estudiantes are on 14 games unbeaten, having won eight and drawn six since losing to Lanus 2-0 in February.

Janner Corozo’s strike with just 12 minutes to go allowed Barcelona SC to take a massive 2-1 home success over Estudiantes last week (with Segundo Castillo as interim boss), which means they will make it to the Copa Sudamericana round-of-16 in the event of avoiding the defeat in Argentina. The team had no league action last weekend as the Liga Pro is still waiting for the second stage of the season (starting in August). As a result, El Idolo lost only one of their last four matches in all competitions, along with two victories and one stalemate. Barcelona won 2-1 away at Guayaquil City in their last away game to stop a five-match winless run of two draws and three losses on the road.

Estudiantes has been struggling to score lately (only 3 goals in their last 5 games) and Barcelona will try to hold to their lead from the 1st leg, so I expect to see a tight game here where the hosts know that a one goal win is at least enough to force a penalties shootout and the visitors will play a slow game.

BET: UNDER 2.5 @ 1.83