Sarmiento vs Tigre
Sarmiento got really worse in the last Liga Profesional spell. Their scoreless home draw against Banfield in round 27 means the team are now winless in their last six in this competition, registering two stalemates and four defeats. That negative streak put them near the relegation spot in the aggregate table: El Verde are now on 30 points, five above Huracan and Colon at the moment. In fact, Sarmiento grabbed two points from the last nine on offer at home. Coach Israel Damonte left the club during the break and Pablo Lavallen will make his debut on Sunday. Fernando Monetti (free agent) and Facundo Ferreyra (from Argentinos Juniors) are the most relevant signings while Luciano Gondou (sold to Argentinos Juniors), Javier Toledo (Colon) and Sebastian Meza (returned to Huracan) left the club.
Tigre wrapped up their Liga Profesional campaign with an interesting streak of three victories and one loss across their last four games in this competition, including a 2-0 home success over San Lorenzo in week 27. As a result, they climbed into 16th spot of the respective table on 34 points, which is an irregular campaign for them. In fact, Guillermo Sara’s men are on two consecutive successes on the road, having beaten Instituto and Colon. During the winter break, Tigre lost several important players: Mateo Retegui (to Genoa CFC, Italy), Facundo Colidio (River Plate) and Lucas Blondel (Boca Juniors) while Renzo Lopez arrived from Saudi club Al Batin.
Both teams went through some changes during the short offseason, but Tigre is probably the most hurt after losing 3 of their most important players so I’ll go with the hosts not to lose here.