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Football

River Plate Montevideo will be taking on Liga Deportiva Universitaria of Ecuador in the Copa Sudamericana semi-finals.

River Plate Montevideo coach Juan Ramon Carrasco believes any advantage his side have enjoyed from their unknown quality in the Copa Sudamericana so far will be lost against Jorge Fossati's Liga Deportiva Universitaria of Ecuador.

River have flown under the radar as they have progressed into the last four, where they will meet the 2008 Copa Libertadores champions who are now under the guidance of Uruguayan Fossati.

Carrasco believes Fossati's knowledge of his club would hinder their hopes, adding that it was already a tall order to progress past one of the biggest clubs in South American football.

"Fossati is Uruguayan and knows River very well so it can be profitable for him," Carrasco told El Pais newspaper.

"Some of the advantages we had over previous rivals was that they did not know us, they did not know how we play.

"Liga are a team with more international experience. They were the Copa Libertadores champions and managed to lift themselves to the top place in the continent.

"They are a model institution with financial power. They play very well as visitors and have clinched good results away."

The first leg of the tie will be played at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo on Thursday with the difficult return leg to be played 2,800metres above sea level in Quito next week.

Fossati, meanwhile, accepts Liga are favourites although he is not overconfident: "We might be favourites, but history is being built and the present is what matters.

"Also, we cannot say River are a team with a lot of youngsters.

"Liga know how to play important ties. We have previous experience of this ourselves too.

"This group know how to play after being champions and they know they being overconfident is not good. This is a mature squad, with experienced players and all this defines the confidence of Liga."

Both teams defeated Argentinian rivals in the quarter-finals with River eliminating giants San Lorenzo while Liga ousted league champions Velez Sarsfield.

The winners of the tie will play the final against Paraguayan champions Cerro Porteno or Brazil's Fluminense, who meet in the first leg of their tie tonight.

The Copa Sudamericana winners will play the annual Suruga Bank Championship against Japanese J. League Cup champions FC Tokyo in the Asian country.