River Plater vs Club Nacional Match Preview

River Plater faces Club Nacional in this quarter-final first leg of Copa Libertadores at Libertadores de América. The match will be held behind closed doors to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The hosts are coming from a big qualification in the last 16 of the competition, where they faced Athletico Paranaense from Brazil. In the first match, they drew 1-1 on the road, while in the second match they won 1-0 at home. Copa Libertadores competition remains their main goal and in the last 5years, they have reached three times in the final winning twice the trophy.

In the previous round of the domestic league, River Plate played under heavy rotation, actually, manager Marcelo Gallardo is preparing his best eleven for today's match. Despite the many changes on their squad, River Plate prevailed 1-3 over Godoy Cruz on the road and remained first in the group standings.

River Plate will compete for the Argentinian title in the 'Fase Campeon', with the first game set to be played on Saturday. Today against Club Nacional they will try to create a clear lead in order to make things easier for them in the second leg in Paraguay. The only missing for their 44 years old manager M. Gallardo is Enzo Perez who was tested positive for Covid-19.

Club Nacional, on the other hand, managed to qualify in the penalty shoot-out against Intepentiente Del Vaye, as both matches ended up with a goalless draw. Both teams played very defensively and failed to open the scoreline in both matches, but luck was on their side, and Club Nacional got the qualification ticket. Now things are getting even tougher for them, facing a difficult opponent like River Plate.

There was no action last week for Club Nacional in their domestic league and they took full advantage of it, getting prepared better for this match. Tonight's missings for the visitors are the injured Felipe Carballo and Guzmán Corujo.

River Plate has the upper hand to win here and will try to secure early qualification by winning with a clear score in the first leg. Club Nacional usually plays very defensively and I expect a similar approach by them today. I think River Plate can win this match and cover -2.5 goals of Asian handicap.