Estudiantes Try to Hold Pavlovich and Co. for a Spot in the Final.

By: Mauro | November 20th, 2008

Club Estudiantes de La Plata vs. Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors (Estadio Unico de La Plata, La Plata, Argentina)

LIVE @ 3:30pm PST on Fox Sports Español. Gamecast here. Online TV here.

After stealing a huge result last week in La Paternal, Estudiantes are coming into this match with all their best players and the intention of getting into the final match. Argentinos, on the other hand, are in a must score situation after not being able to completely put the Pincharatas to bed last week, but the result at the weekend between these two has eyebrows raised and doubts well in place.

With arguably their best squad in recent years, Estudiantes have a strong starting XI with a handful of substitutes that can also get the job done and sometimes better than the starters. For tonight’s match, coach Leonardo Astrada will be able to count on his very best starting line up including talismanic midfielder Juan Sebastián Verón.

Last week, Estudiantes were able to get a valuable away goal giving them a slim advantage over the Argentinos side that are faced with having to score at least one goal to assure that they’ll be in the final of this competition. But the big doubt in place is the result this past weekend in the Argentine Clausura.

You see these two sides met in the Argentine Clausura and the match ended with a surprising result. Neither team fielded their full strength squads but a few starters did make the cut. Argentinos put on a clinic at the Diego Maradona and won 5-0. No, that’s not a typo. 5-0. This may place some of the momentum back in Argentinos favor who just barely failed to beat Estudiantes on their ground.

Argentinos are looking to put their club’s name as high as they can this season and a Sudamericana win would do just that. Not since the mid 80s has Argentinos had a team that on an international title. With this in mind, coach Nestór Gorosito has refused to name his final starting XI and word is, he’s still deciding whether or not to go with Carlos Recalde or Franco Quiroga and it’s expected that Gonzalo Prosperi will replace Juan Sabia.

Estudiantes will also be without Leandro Desábato who was red carded in the first leg. Christian Cellay will replace him.

Pavlovich, Boselli and Alex of Inter are all tied as leading goalscorers of the tournament (along with Marcos Lazaga but he doesn’t count since he and his team were eliminated early on) so you know Boselli and Pavlovich will be taking any shot they can get.

Bottom Line: Both sides have some advantages here and there but Estudiantes has the biggest one of all, the away goal. If coach Leonardo Astrada wants to play a conservative match, he could try to stone wall Argentinos but remember what I said about the Football Gods. We don’t want to piss them off. In any case, Estudiantes has the advantage which makes Argentinos the underdog. Argentinos must love being the underdog, they came from nowhere to beat San Lorenzo and Palmeiras, both teams they should have lost to. I guess what I’m saying is that Estudiantes is the right pick here.

My Pick: 2-1 to Estudiantes. Estudiantes will have trouble handling Hauche and Pavlovich and one of them will get the goal but it won’t be enough. Estudiantes will impose the rhythm of the match, which will be a slow, plodding and strategic tempo lead by Verón.

The winners tonight will face Internacional of Porto Alegre in the Final of the Copa Sudamericana.

Feel free to check the CONMEBOL website for results and information about upcoming matches and for those of you in need of a bracket to get your heads around the competition, get an updated one here.