Preview: Caracas vs Santa Fe - prediction, team news, lineups

Needing a two-goal victory to keep their Copa Sudamericana campaign alive, Caracas will welcome Santa Fe to Estadio Olimpico de la UCV in the Venezuelan capital on Thursday.

In the opening leg of this knockout tie, the Colombians came away with a 2-0 triumph in Bogota a week ago.

Match preview

A place in the last 16 of the Sudamericana is looking bleak for Caracas, a side that have not gotten to that stage of the competition since 2018-19.

To turn this tie in their direction, they need at least a two-goal triumph, something they have not managed to do since March when they defeated Trujillanos 4-2 in the Venezuelan Primera Division.

Henry Melendez and his team are on a three-match winless run across all competitions, having lost their last two competitive games.

On the other hand, they have points in five of their last seven home outings across all competitions, emerging victorious on four of those occasions.

They only won once in Caracas during the group stage of this Sudamericana, blanking Independiente Petrolero 1-0 in mid-April.

In three previous Sudamericana meetings with Santa Fe, Los Rojos del Avila have failed to win, with their only positive result against them taking place in the Venezuelan capital in 2010 (0-0).

Last week, Santa Fe put themselves in a strong position to reach the last 16 of this tournament for the first time since 2018.

While Pablo Repetto’s men are winless in four of their last five away matches played across all competitions, they have avoided defeat on three of those occasions.

Only twice in 2026 have they suffered a two-goal defeat, with the last one occurring in the Copa Libertadores group stage this year when Corinthians beat them 2-1.

They have advanced in every one of their Sudamericana two-leg ties in which they led after the opener since 2016, when Cerro Porteno erased a 2-0 deficit by winning the return engagement 4-1 that year.

The Colombians have won their last four competitive fixtures when netting the opening goal and have only lost once all year when doing so (2-1 versus Atletico Nacional in February).

Los Cardenales have never won a Copa Sudamericana fixture on Venezuelan soil and have not scored in those two visits, drawing Caracas 0-0 in the second leg of their second-round tie in 2010 and advancing 2-1 on aggregate.

Caracas Copa Sudamericana form:

Caracas form (all competitions):

Santa Fe Copa Sudamericana form:

Santa Fe form (all competitions):

Team News

Caracas will have striker Lucciano Fabrissio Reinoso Torin available despite previously incurring stomach problems, as he was on the bench but did not feature in leg one, while Michael Covea has started in every Sudamericana fixture for them this season.

Sebastian Gonzalez and Francisco La Mantia were the new faces in the starting 11 last week, replacing Luis Mago and Adrian Fernandez, who began their final group match at the Sudamericana versus Botafogo.

On the Santa Fe side, Juan Sebastian Quintero is the only major injury concern as he deals with an ACL problem, while Ewil Murillo is questionable because of a meniscus issue.

Hugo Rodallega and Franco Fagundez found the back of the net in the opening leg of this tie while goalkeeper Andres Mosquera only had to make one stop for the clean sheet.

Caracas possible starting lineup:

Benitez; Fereira, Quintero, La Mantia, Yendis; Larotonda, Gudino; Correa, Covea, Hernandez; A. Fernandez

Santa Fe possible starting lineup:

Mosquera; Palacios, Olivera, Moreno, Angulo; Torres, Bustos, Toscano; Obrian, Rodallega O. Fernandez

We say: Caracas 1-1 Santa Fe (Santa Fe advances 3-1 on aggregate)

As much as Santa Fe have struggled in Venezuela, they should be able to take advantage against a desperate Caracas team that do not have a ton of quality going forward.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.