Barcelona vs Boca Juniors Preview

February 26, 2013 By Gregory Sica

Topics: Barcelona, Boca Juniors, Copa Libertadores

Boca Juniors will be looking for their first win of the Copa Libertadores when they travel to Ecuador to do battle with Barcelona.

Argentine giants Boca Juniors have commenced 2013 in disastrous form, both in their domestic competition and the Copa Libertadores, and because of this they have no choice but to pick up a positive result from their visit to Ecuador in the Copa Libertadores Group 1 clash with Barcelona de Guayaquil.

In Boca's Copa Libertadores debut they were surprisingly beaten at home at the Bombonera against Mexican outfit Toluca. Boca had taken the lead in that game through Uruguayan striker Santiago Silva, but ended up losing 2-1.

Rivals Barcelona fought out a 2-2 draw with Nacional in Montevideo in their Copa Libertadores debut. The Ecuadorians had gone two goals in front, but the hosts scored two late goals to force a draw.

Boca, who were losing finalists of the 2012 Copa Libertadores to Corinthians, have struggled since the appointment of legendary coach Carlos Bianchi. Due to this, and in particular their disappointing 2-0 defeat to All Boys in the Argentine League on the weekend, Bianchi is expected to make no less than five changes to his side.

Goalkeeper Oscar Ustari will make way for Agustin Orion, Pablo Ledesma will replace Guillermo Fernandez, Cristian Erbes will take the place of Leandro Somoza, Nicolas Colazo will substitute Walter Erviti and finally Lucas Viatri will replace Silva in the attack.

Juan Roman Riquelme, who recently returned to the club, has yet to feature for the side and will also miss this game. But he is expected to make his official debut for the club in the coming weeks.

Barcelona, who are the current Ecuadorian champions, will field an extremely strong side as they look for their first win of the competition. One player who will not feature in the game is defender Jose Luis Perlaza, who was sent off in the draw with Nacional.