Pick 1 :

Gameday in Quito for the first leg of the semi final of the Copa Sudamericana between Independiente del Valle & Melgar.

Del Valle will be full line up for this game.

On their side Melgar will be without key defender Paolo Reyna. According to last news, key player Kenji Cabrera might be out after a injury he got on the last game.

Until now Del Valle always could make the difference at home against Lanus & Tachira. We need to remind that they are a Copa Libertadores team who had the third rank so they went in Copa Sudamericana.

The only difference compare to their previous opponents and Melgar is that they will not get a altitude advantage because Melgar is a team who is playing in Arequipa with 2300 meters altitude.

Melgar is clearly doing their best season of last years, they have amazing results but also providing a very strong football, they finished in front of Racing in group, they eliminated Deportivo Cali & of course the big team in Brazil Inter where they could resist and qualify on the road after OT.

Del Valle is a team used to that kind of games, they were champion in 2019. They have a very good team, they lost some great players as José Hurtado, William Pacho, Pedro Vite but they have a very strong academy and young of Del Valle always performing very well in Copa Libertadores of young.

I will not be result oriented, Melgar is very strong and providing a good football this season but they are less experienced and they have also less qualities than Del Valle.

Must win situation for Del Valle if they want to qualify in final because in Peru it will be very hard with the home support.

Del Valle should go with : Moisés Ramírez - Matías Fernández, Mateo Carabajal, Richard Schunke, Luis Segovia, Jhoanner Chávez - Marco Angulo, Lorenzo Faravelli, Fernando Gaibor - Junior Sornoza and Jonatan Bauman.

I expect 2-0 or 2-1.

Pick 2 :

Gameday in Chaco for the 1/8 final between DyJ & River Plate. As important fact here is that game will be played at neutral location.

Both teams are from Buenos Aires so the travel is the same. About fans support, River should get the advantage of course as they are a big team in Argentina they are much more fans everywhere in Argentina and should get more support. DyJ is usually a big home team.

DyJ should not get any problem of missing.

River will be without important defender Hector Martinez who is suspended. Felipe Pena & Rober Rojas are injured.

The good thing is that Paulo Diaz is back from injury but still not sure at 100% to see him start this game.

River is of course not in the easiest situation in this season after the loss of key players as Enzo Martinez & Julian Alvarez who gave trouble to the team to replace them on the field. It means that actually River isn't in a good position in the domestic league table and of course the main goal for them is to qualify for the Copa Libertadores, not having a Copa Libertadores spot for them would be a big fail. A chance is with the domestic league and the other chance is with the cup.

According to press conference, the focus on this game is at 100%. Gallardo will use the best team available and it should be the same 11 as against Tigre.

I expect River to go with : Franco Armani; Jonathan Herrera, Emanuel Mammana, Javier Pinola, Casco; Enzo Pérez, Pablo Solari, Juafer Quintero, Agustín Palavecino, Nicolás De la Cruz and Miguel Borja.

I expect River to dominate this game and win 0-2 or 1-2.