Estudiantes Must Win at Home by Wide Margin to Qualify.

By: Mauro | May 6th, 2008

Estudiantes de La Plata vs. Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito (Estadio Unico, La Plata, Argentina)
LIVE @ 4:30pm on Fox Sports Español

With their back against the wall, Estudiantes must find a way to win tonight’s match at their ground in La Plata. In the first leg, LDU Quito took care of business and registered a nice 2-0 win in Ecuador which gives them a fantastic leg to stand on in this match.

Estudiantes is coming off two consecutive losses, the first to LDU Quito last week and the second to Argentinos Juniors in the Argentine Clausura on Saturday.

Estudiantes coach Roberto Sensini has asked his players to remain calm should his team fail to score right away, and just in case it’s necessary, he had keeper Mariano Andujar in goal while his team mates practiced penalties.

According to LDU Quito manager, Edgardo Bauza, the team will be coming out to play just as they did at home to try to put a final punctuation on the tie and qualify for the quarter finals.

In my estimation, LDU has been a solid team based on the results they’ve had in the Libertadores. I think it’s still too early to say that most of the teams in this round are up for the run to the finals except maybe for Boca (But more on them later this week.) LDU have only faced Fluminense (the most effective side in the group stage) and then Libertad and Arsenal who seemed to save their best football for later matches once they had no chance to qualify.

With players like Damian Manso and Pablo Urrutia, LDU play a nice style of football, similar to an Argentine style, but with flairs of Ecuadorian football throughout.

Bottom Line: Estudiantes are a tough squad, I believe they may have peaked a little too early, near the end of the group stage, and are now on the downward slide. LDU seem to be solid and have a very positive record at home but not so much in an away standing where they lost two away matches and only won one at Arsenal. My pick: 2-0 to Estudiantes. They force penalties and win. I have more faith in Andujar than Cevallos in goal. Cevallos is on the downside of his career.

Check the CONMEBOL website for results, stats and upcoming matches.