Gimnasia vs Talleres
Gimnasia LP fans will have felt devastated after the team’s 1-1 home stalemate against Platense in the Liga Profesional round 27 as the team conceded the equaliser in the 93rd minute. As a result of a seven-match winless streak of five draws and two defeats in this competition, El Lobo ended up on 30 points, just five above the relegation spot in the aggregate table for now. Three of those matches took place at Estadio Juan Carmelo Zerillo, with Gimnasia taking two points from nine available in that spell. The club signed two players that are returning: Pablo De Blasis (from FC Cartagena, Spain) and Lucas Castro (Sarmiento).
Talleres closed up their excellent campaign in the Liga Profesional through a valuable 1-1 away draw at Newell’s Old Boys in their last game in that competition. As a result, La T secured the second spot in the league table on 50 points, 11 behind champions River Plate but five above the first non-Copa Libertadores’ spot in the aggregate table. In fact, Javier Gandolfi’s men are on six matches unbeaten in league action, winning two and drawing four. On away turf, Talleres secured seven points from the last nine on offer since losing to Lanus 2-1 in June.
Michael Santos left the club and joined Mexican side Juarez FC and Diego Valoyes is about to follow him.
Talleres was one of the best team in the previous tournament, but they lost their top 2 strikers (Santos and Valoyes) and even though they brought some players to replace them, it’s can’t be easy to adapt to play without your two best players so I’ll go with the hosts here not to lose.