Junior de Barranquilla (Home)
- Junior de Barranquilla come into their Libertadores opener in mixed form, mixing wins and draws in their last five matches.
- Junior, who will be playing home games in Cartagena, will need to overcome some defensive issues to take anything from this clash of Colombian and Brazilian big guns.
Palmeiras (Away)
- Palmeiras have been in superb form since the start of the year, stringing together wins and topping the Brazilian Serie A table in early April.
- This is an interesting clash of styles, with Junior preferring to attack directly and press opportunistically and Palmeiras favouring high pressing, structure and ball control.
Head-to-Head
CD Junior de Barranquilla and Palmeiras have faced each other rarely in CONMEBOL club competition but the last meeting is still vivid in the memory of the Brazilian club’s fans, a 2019 Libertadores group match in which they brushed aside their Colombian visitors with a 3-0 win.
Key Players
- Palmeiras boss Abel Ferreira has made his mark on the team with tactical flexibility, the ability to rotate his squad and maintain defensive solidity and an attacking structure that suffocates the central areas and makes the team very dangerous in transition.
- Gustavo Gómez leads the defence and is a master of organisation with the ball at his feet, while Vitor Roque and Murilo can make the difference in finals, as they have in recent finals.
- They’ve got experience and talent in the attacking areas with Carlos Bacca a clinical presence in the box and Jhon Chará and José Enamorado bringing pace and delivery from the wings, but they have been caught out on the defensive too often for Alfredo Arias’ liking.
Betting Insights
The Both Teams to Score - No bet looks like it should be a winner in this contest, coming in at 1.77 with the same bookmaker while Under 2.5 goals at 1.65 is the correct score play we are having here, as we don’t expect the visitors to need to score more than once to win this clash.
Prediction
Our belief is that the visitors’ quality and form should be enough to get the three points in Cartagena and we are taking them at 2.0 .
