River – Independiente Rivadavia

River Plate failed to regain the first spot in group A last Saturday, when they wasted a two-goal lead and ended up drawing 2-2 at Talleres in an entertaining match. Martin Demichelis’ men made it 11 league games unbeaten, but four of those were wins and the other seven ended in draws. El Millonario remain occupying one of the playoff places, accumulating 14 points, but trailing leaders Independiente by two at the moment. River are without defeat in their last five home matches, winning one and drawing four in that stretch.

Independiente Rivadavia couldn’t take advantage of Rodolfo de Paoli’s departure and saw their crisis getting deeper last time out. A 3-1 home defeat to Barracas Central under interim boss Federico Arias means La Lepra are now on five losses in a row in Copa Liga Profesional action: the team remain on six points after eight rounds, which places them just one point above the relegation spot in the point-average table, occupied by Deportivo Riestra. To make matters worse, Independiente lost their last three on the road. New coach Martin Cicotello will make his debut on Wednesday. Centre back Bruno Bianchi is suspended after reaching the yellow-card.

River, usually one of the strongest teams at home in the league, are coming from an unbelievable 1 win and 4 draws streak at their stadium but they have a perfect situation here to regain confidence as they will face one of the weakest teams in the league who will miss their best defender, Bruno Bianchi. They have a new, inexperienced coach and if they couldn’t hold Barracas at home, I can’t see how they will avoid a defeat here against a hungry River that needs the points to become the Group leaders.

BET: River -1.5 @ 1.89