Athletico Paranaese vs River Plate Predictions

Thursday’s Recopa Sudamericana first leg action sees Copa Sudamericana champions Athletico PR doing battle with Copa Libertadores champions River Plate. Athletico will be looking to establish an advantage in the fight to secure an important continental title.

Athletico did very well to lift the Copa Sudamericana crown last year, beating the likes of Newell’s Old Boys, Penarol, Caracas, Bahia, Fluminense and Junior on their way to the crown and they now have the Recopa title firmly in their sights. The side are a powerful force on the continent, and have already booked their place in the last 16 of this year’s Libertadores, but for now all focus can only be on this tie.

Indeed, Athletico rested all of their regular starters in their weekend defeat to Corinthians and have been preparing for this game for weeks. It won’t be easy, but Athletico will be confident in their ability to beat River, particularly in this first leg, given they’ve won 10 of their last 12 games on the artificial surface of their Arena da Baixada home.

Meanwhile, River were crowned Copa Libertadores champions at the end of last year in the sweetest of ways, beating arch rivals Boca Juniors in the final, having previously eliminated Racing, Independiente and Gremio along the way. Los Millonarios won the Recopa Sudamericana title back in 2015 and 2016 and there’s no doubting they’ll be itching to get their hands on it once again, to add yet another trophy to Marcelo Gallardo’s reign.

Nonetheless, River do come into this game off the back of disappointment, which is quite a concern. They were recently eliminated from the domestic Copa de la Superliga by Atletico Tucuman due to losing the away leg of the tie 3-0 and they’ll be using that as a warning for what could go wrong in Thursday’s game.

Ultimately, this looks a tie that’s hard to call over two legs and will be separated by whoever best uses their home advantage. Athletico are typically very powerful on home soil but they really need to edge ahead in this game, as they’ll find it very difficult to secure any kind of result in the Monumental for the return fixture.

All things considered, we believe that backing a home win looks to provide good value and is exactly where our money is going. It won’t be easy, but Athletico have won all 3 of their continental home matches this year and should have just enough to get the better of River, with a 2-1 margin of home victory on the cards.