Exterminator of Brazilians in the previous stages, Barcelona is the rival of Grêmio on Wednesday, October 25, in a game that opens the dispute between the teams for a place in the decision of the 2017 edition of the Copa Libertadores of America. The match will be played at the Banco Pichincha stadium in Guayaquil. The start is scheduled for 21:45 (Brasília time). The return match was scheduled for November 1 in Porto Alegre.
Barcelona’s recent performance
Having teams from Brazil along the way was a specialty of Barcelona. In the first round, Botafogo was his teammate in group 1. The teams finished tied with ten points (three wins, one draw and two losses), but the Rio de Janeiro rider took the best in the tiebreaking criteria, getting the first place.
Second place placed Palmeiras on the way of the Ecuadorians, who won their first match of the eighth-finals in Guayaquil, 1-0. In the return game in São Paulo, they lost by the same score. They ensured their survival by winning the decision on penalties by 5 to 4.
The drama was only slightly smaller in the quarterfinals. Again playing first at home, Barcelona were in the draw, by 1 to 1, with Santos. However, in Vila Belmiro, he defeated the São Paulo alvinegro by 1 to 0 ensuring his classification.
This game, however, left two negative legacies for the opening of the quarterfinals. Uruguayan striker Jonatan Daniel Alvez Sagar and defender Gabriel Marques de Andrade Pinto, both holders of the team, have been sent off and will not be able to play on Wednesday. Must comply with automatic suspension.
Barcelona’s good campaign at Libertadores has served as an escape valve for failure in the Ecuadorian Championship. Since the game against Santos, the team has not achieved a victory. There were five games (four draws and one defeat).
The most recent duel was on Sunday, October 22, away from home, against Nacional. There were 3 to 3 points. With 13 points (two wins, seven draws and four losses), the team occupies a modest ninth place among the 12 contenders of the Ecuadorian Series, which has Emelec as the leader with 15 points more.
The current form of Grêmio
Although his situation in the Brazilian Championship is not so bad, Grêmio also bet all his chips in the attempt to conquer the international tournament. For having this priority, placed in the field teams partially or completely reserves to dispute games of Brasileirão.
That was what happened on Sunday against Palmeiras. Acting at home, coach Renato Gaucho put only starters who needed to gain pace after recovering from injury, as midfielder Luan and midfielder Michel. On the plus side, he climbed reserves that were defeated by 3 to 1 for Palmeiras.
Parked in the 50 points (15 wins, five draws and ten losses), the gremistas fell to the fourth position. They close the zone of direct classification for the group phase of the Copa Libertadores of 2018.
However, the result of the 2017 edition of the international tournament will be decisive to indicate if the Grêmio campaign of the season was failed or successful, because the team had determined the Brazil Cup as their second priority and ended up being eliminated from the tournament in the semifinals.
In Libertadores, the tricolor gaucho was classified with tranquility in the group phase when reaching the first place of the key 8 with 13 points (four victories, a tie and a defeat). He scored 15 goals and suffered six.
In the round of 16 he passed Godoy Cruz, from Argentina, without any scares. Scored 1 to 0 at home and the capital of Rio Grande do Sul confirmed the advantage by winning by 2 to 1. In the quarterfinals, the difficulty was slightly higher. In front of Botafogo, tied without goals in Rio de Janeiro. However, he imposed without field command guaranteeing the place in the semifinals by scoring 1 to 0 in Porto Alegre.
History of the matches
The teams have already been rivals in a knockout in the 2012 season. For the South American Cup, Grêmio won 1-0 in Ecuador and confirmed the score by scoring 2 to 1 in Porto Alegre.
PREDICTION: DRAW @ 3.20
