Inter Look to Sneak One Past Boca Juniors’ Juniors.

By: Mauro | October 22nd, 2008

Sport Club Internacional vs Club Atlético Boca Juniors (Estádio Beira-Rio, Porto Alegre, Brazil)

Tape Delay @ 8:30pm PST. Match begins LIVE @ 5pm. Gamecast here. Online TV here.

Internacional de Porto Alegre come into this match as favorites in this Quarter-Final, as they face a Boca Juniors side who arrived in Brazil yesterday with many substitutes and youngsters, most of who were present on the pitch when Boca eliminated LDU Quito in the Round of 16.

Going against the grain in terms of what the other Brazilian clubs in this competition have decided to focus their best resources on, Inter have made the Sudamericana their sole focus from here to December. Tomorrow, expect to see Inter best cuts of beef on the pitch as they face one of the better clubs of South America.

Inter are far from the top of the Brasileirao table, a table headed by none other than their bitter cross town rivals, Gremio, where the El Colorado trail by 10 points. But in the Sudamericana, they have had better luck. Facing Gremio in the First Round, they drew the first leg at home, 1-1, and then drew again in the second leg, 2-2, advancing on away goals. They faced Universidad Católica in the Round of 16, where they drew, 1-1 in Santiago and then held the Chileans, 0-0 at home to advance again, on away goals.

The attention will be focused on Argentine playmaker Andrés D’Alessandro. D’Alessandro is a player brought up in the River Plate youth system, a club he is most identified with despite recently playing with San Lorenzo and eliminating his former club in the Copa Libertadores Round of 16. Despite this, he is still a fan favorite in Nuñez and his allegiance to River does run very deep.

While Inter coach, Tité, will be fielding the best of what’s available to him, this team will not include midfielder, Pablo Guiñazú, who was injured in Inter’s last Sudamericana match against Católica. But that’s not all, Ricardo Lopes is having some knee trouble and Uruguayan International Gonzalo Sorondo, had his knee operated on last week and has been dropped from the list for this tournament to make way for midfielder Sandro.

Boca, meanwhile, is coming into Porto Alegre on the good foot. Having just beat their bitter rivals, River Plate, in El SuperClásico, on their ground, Boca are looking to make some headway in the first leg of this series against Inter. But having fielded a team of substitutes and youngsters in the Round of 16, Boca pounded past Copa Libertadores champs, LDU Quito on a 5-1 aggregate, beating LDU Quito in Argentina with a resounding 4-0 scoreline and drawing in Quito 1-1. In fact, the only repeat names in tonight’s formation from the team that beat River on Sunday will be, Gabriel Paletta, Nicolás Gaitán and keeper Javier Garcia.

There are some questions as to who will line up where for Boca tonight, but it looks like the big question mark is whether or not Boca will come out to attack or play a little more modest. With two forwards, they would have to field one less midfielder. Ricardo Noir will be lining up as the starting striker with Pablo Mouche, Jonatan Philippe and Luciano Figueroa left to fight out who will the second striker if that second striker is needed.

Bottom Line: Inter is fielding their best and while they’ve done that in past rounds as well, but they failed to dominate. But their last opponents were Católica, and in my book, they play a similar offensive set like Boca so we might see the same kind of match up here. Basically, Inter have the firepower but lack the scorelines in this competition to put fear into the heart of the Boca faithful.

Boca, meanwhile, have exploded into this competition, turning what seemed like a great, even match up into a one sided affair and all with an alternate squad. If the youngsters run at Inter, this could be a very even affair, leaving Inter exposed in the second leg at La Bombonera.

My Pick: 2-1 to Inter. Inter manage to squeeze out the lead but fail to keep Boca out of their net giving Boca their first loss in this tournament.

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.