Union vs Banfield
Union Santa Fe took advantage of Tigre’s crisis in the last Copa Liga Profesional round and beat them 1-0 away thanks to a strike from Joaquin Mosqueira. That victory allowed them to stop a four-match winless streak of two stalemates and two losses in league action and to make it 20 points, just four behind the last Copa Sudamericana spot in the aggregate table at the moment. At home, Union secured eight points in seven matches this term, winning two, drawing two and losing three. During the break, they lost 2-1 to second-tier side Gimnasia Mendoza in the Copa Argentina first round. Federico Vera will miss out on Monday due to a muscle problem. In addition, Joaquin Mosqueira is suspended after reaching the yellow-card limit in the last league game.
Banfield showed a great display of effort to secure a massive 2-1 away success at Gimnasia LP in their last league game, when they had to reverse the score after trailing first. In the context of an irregular campaign, El Taladro won two and drew one of their last four league matches (just losing to Independiente 1-0 at home in that spell) to make it 17 points in 14 rounds. On a curious note, Banfield have been strong on the road lately: they are unbeaten in the last five, winning three and drawing two.
I’m going to trust Union to start strong at home this tournament, against a Banfield that has been good lately but will have yet another missing due to injury, this time is veteran goalkeeper Marcelo Barovero who has saved them more than a few times this year.