Caracas vs Atletico Paranaese Predictions

Wednesday’s Copa Sudamericana round of 16, first leg action sees Venezuelans Caracas doing battle with Atletico PR. The hosts will be looking to use their home advantage to spring an upset on their Brazilian visitors.

Coming from a domestic scene which ranks as by far the weakest in South America, Caracas have done extremely well to reach this point of the competition and supporters are now dreaming of an even deeper run in the competition. Los Rojos del Ávila crashed out in the first round of the competition last season but have put in some good performances in it this year, first shocking Chileans Everton prior to dispatching of Peruvians Sport Huancayo to reach this point.

With 4 consecutive league wins behind them, Caracas arrive with plenty of momentum behind them and confidence is certainly running high in home ranks. The hosts have been strong on home soil in recent weeks, losing just 1 of their last 6 outings there and having won 4 of said matches as well as keeping 5 clean sheets in them, hopes are high of securing a positive result on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Atletico PR will take to the field looking to assert their dominance over a tie most expect them to win comfortably. Possessing huge resources in comparison to Caracas, Furacão will suffer big embarrassment if they crash out and building on wins over Newell’s Old Boys and Penarol in the competition so far is the overall target.

Nonetheless, if Atletico are to advance, most of their work will likely be done on home soil, with the side’s far from inspiring away record a big concern ahead of this trip. As strong as they are as hosts, Atletico have been dreadful for a number of months on the road, winning just 1 of their last 19 away games, losing 10 times in the process.

Whilst we fully understand why the Brazilians are big favourites to advance from the tie overall, and believe they will do so, such a short price on them winning this game makes very little sense, given the wretched showings they are producing regularly on the road.

As such, backing a Caracas outfit that is fairly handy on home territory to avoid defeat looks the way to play and is exactly where our money is going at a more than fair price. The Venezuelans have shown huge amounts of guts and desire in the competition so far and we think they are capable of turning more heads by edging ahead with a 1-0 victory.