River vs Newell’s
Matias Suarez’s strike in the 92nd minute gave River Plate a highly celebrated 1-0 away success at Independiente last Sunday to hold onto their hope of fighting for the title. El Millonario make it three victories across the last five league matches, along with one draw and one defeat, to accumulate 18 points in the Liga Profesional, seven behind table toppers Atletico Tucuman. Furthermore, they climbed into one of the Copa Libertadores spots in the aggregate table again.
Newell’s Old Boys can’t overcome their crisis. Last Sunday, the team showed a poor performance again and had to settle for a scoreless home draw against Colon. That result means they are now on seven league games without a win (four draws and three defeats) and accumulate 17 points in the Liga Profesional, which is not enough to approach the Copa Libertadores places in the aggregate table. On away turf, La Lepra grabbed a single point from the last nine available.
Even if River is not the team they used to be, they still have enough to beat this poor Newell’s that will miss their best defender, Cristian Lema.