Sarmiento vs Atletico Tucuman
Sarmiento had a rough night away at Independiente last weekend. The 2-0 defeat stopped their six-match unbeaten streak of two victories and four draws: the team also made it four without a win and without even scoring (drawing three and losing one since beating Union Santa Fe 2-0 away in round 16). Israel Damonte’s men remain on 25 points, a decent campaign so far, but they are edging closer the relegation zone in the point-average table, occupying 25th spot of those rankings. On the other hand, Sarmiento haven’t lost any of their last five at home, with two victories and three stalemates in a row.
Atletico Tucuman produced a much-needed recovery last time out and claimed a massive 2-1 home victory over Godoy Cruz thanks to goals from Mateo Coronel and Matias Orihuela. In the context of a poor campaign, El Decano succumbed to a single defeat across their last four league games, winning two and drawing one. Through that run, Lucas Pusineri’s men made it 21 points in the Liga Profesional table, opening a three-point gap over Velez Sarsfield, Huracan and Banfield, who are currently sharing the relegation spot. On a sorry note, Atletico picked up a single point from the last nine on offer on away turf.
Despite last week’s win at home, Atletico has been awful so far this season so even though Sarmiento is not a lot better, I expected to get a much needed win at their stadium where they’ve been quite solid lately.