Defensa y Justicia vs Godoy Cruz
Defensa y Justicia couldn’t handle coach Julio Vaccari’s decision to rest all his regulars in the Liga Profesional round 27 and the team ended up losing 2-0 away at Union Santa Fe, a result that put an end to their five-match unbeaten streak of three victories and two stalemates in league action and also displaced them from the Copa Libertadores spots in the aggregate table: El Halcon remain on 44 points, trailing fourth-placed Lanus by one at the moment. Defensa are unbeaten in their last eight domestic matches at home, having won five and drawn three. During the break, the side advanced to the Copa Sudamericana quarter-finals by beating Ecuadorian side CS Emelec via a 3-1 aggregate result.
Godoy Cruz closed up their Liga Profesional campaign with an enjoyable 4-2 home success over Instituto. Having lost only one of their last seven matches in this competition (along with three victories and three stalemates), El Tomba climbed into ninth spot of the table on 41 points, currently qualifying for the 2024 Copa Sudamericana. On a sorry note, Daniel Oldra’s men are now winless in their last seven away matches, with four draws and three losses since beating CA Central Cordoba 2-0 in April.
When they met in the previous tournament a month ago they finished in a very entertaining 2-2 draw, and I expect another open game here as they are both very good attacking teams.