Four-time Copa Libertadores winner River Plate faces elimination at the round of 16 stage this season needing to overturn a 1-0 deficit against Velez Sarsfield on Wednesday to remain in the competition.
Bookmaker William Hill has the odds at 2.62 for River to score in both halves Wednesday night and at 7.00 for Velez to find the net in each half.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: July 5th, 10:00 A.M. (EST)
Velez managed to win the first leg in the tie last week thanks to a 15th-minute Lucas Janson penalty. River dominated the proceedings and had 62 percent of possession, but they just couldn’t take their chances. Marcelo Gallardo’s side has to be more ruthless in the return leg.
Wednesday’s match is set to be the farewell game of Julian Alvarez. The talented forward will join Manchester City for pre-season training after the clash and will look to go out with a bang.
The 22-year-old has enjoyed incredible form over the last year and a half producing 41 goals and 21 assists across 69 appearances for River. His work in the Copa Libertadores includes an incredible six-goal effort in an 8-1 win over Alianza Lima in the final game of the group stage.
The first outing after group stage action finished didn’t go according to plan for River, but with Alvarez in their side for one final time, they should be pretty confident of their chances Wednesday.
While River gets ready to say goodbye to their star player, Velez are set to welcome theirs. The 10-time Argentine champions snapped up Diego Godin a few weeks back after the Uruguayan veteran terminated his contract with Atletico Mineiro in Brazil and the former Atletico Madrid captain could be in line for his debut on Wednesday.
Godin hasn’t yet featured for Velez due to a knee issue. However, he has been training with the team and manager Julio Vaccari will no doubt want to have Godin available for the clash as Velez will desperately try to hang on to their first-leg lead.
River are the clear favorites for the match, but Velez shouldn’t be underestimated. They have just started to recover from a poor start to the new league campaign and the head-to-head meetings always seem to produce tight battles. You have to go all the way back to 2008 to find the last time either side managed to win consecutive games in the match-up.
