River vs Gimnasia
River Plate showed a disappointing performance last weekend and were lucky to rescue a point on their visit to Independiente, drawing 1-1 in an intense match. However, El Millonario remain as the only unbeaten team in the Copa Liga Profesional, accumulating 18 points in ten rounds to stay occupying one of the playoff spots in group A. In fact, El Millonario made it 13 league games without defeat (five victories and eight stalemates). River haven’t lost any of their last six domestic games as the hosting side, winning two and drawing four since their 2-1 defeat to Huracan in early November. On Wednesday 13, River won 2-1 Estudiantes in the Supercopa Argentina final.
Gimnasia LP gave a little breather to coach Leonardo Madelon last weekend, when the team showed improvements to beat Barracas Central 2-0 at home, with Felipe Sanchez and Eric Ramirez scoring. El Lobo put an end to their four-match winless streak of one draw and three defeats in league action and made it 13 points in group A, trailing the last playoff spot by five with four rounds to go. On a sorry note, Gimnasia are on three consecutive losses as the visiting side. Winger Matias Abaldo has served his two-match suspension and is set to return.
River just won the Supercup on Wednesday that was celebrated a lot, so their minds might not be 100% here. They are of course a big favorite to win, but their home record this season has been quite poor so even if Gimnasia has been irregular and poor when playing away, I’m going to bet them here to cover this big handicap.