Sarmiento – Estudiantes

Sarmiento showed improvements last time out to take a breather in the context of a problematic season. The 1-0 away success over San Lorenzo (through a strike from Manuel Garcia in the 70th minute) allowed them to break a seven-match winless streak of one draw and six defeats in league action. El Verde made it four points in as many Liga Profesional rounds and opened a seven-point gap over bottom-placed Tigre in the aggregate rankings. On a sorry note, Sarmiento lost their last four matches at Estadio Eva Peron (since beating Estudiantes 3-1 in March).

Estudiantes were lucky to rescue a point after a poor performance against Godoy Cruz in MD4, drawing 1-1 at home after netting Zaid Romero’s equaliser in the 86th minute. The defending champions made it seven points in four Liga Profesional matches, trailing leaders by three. Eduardo Dominguez’s men lost only one of their last ten league games, winning six and drawing three in regular time. Estudiantes won two and lost three of their last five away matches in domestic action. Last Saturday, Estudiantes drew 1-1 away against Brazil’s Gremio FBPA in a Copa Libertadores group game.

Besides their very lucky win at San Lorenzo in the last round, Sarmiento had conceded goals in 10 of their previous 11 games but they’ve shown some improvements scoring in 3 of the last 4 so I’ll go for the OVER here as I can see at least a couple of goals between the hosts who are desperate for points and Estudiantes who have scored at least once in their last 6 games including the first 4 rounds of this tournament.

BET: OVER 2 @ 2.01