Instituto vs Boca
Instituto’s impressive moment of form was stopped last Thursday, when the team ended up losing 1-0 away at Atletico Tucuman with Santiago Russo missing a penalty. That defeat put an end to their three-match winning streak in Liga Profesional action and prevented them from becoming league leaders: Diego Dabove’s men now remain on 13 points, trailing table toppers Huracan by two. In fact, La Gloria couldn’t even climb into the Copa Sudamericana zone in the aggregate table. Instituto took seven points from the last nine on offer at Estadio Juan Domingo Peron. Santiago Rodriguez will miss out again due to a muscle problem.
Boca Juniors are finding trouble to improve in league action. Last Sunday, they had to settle for a disappointing 2-2 away stalemate at Defensa y Justicia after trailing on both occasions. Even though El Xeneize lost only one of their last five in this competition (two wins and two draws), they accumulated just eight points in six rounds (holding one game in hand after postponing their home commitment against Banfield in midweek). That’s enough for Diego Martinez’s men to stay occupying one of the Copa Sudamericana spots in the aggregate table. Boca won only one of their last five away games in domestic action, drawing one and losing three. On Wednesday 24, Boca beat Ecuador’s Independiente del Valle 1-0 at home, advancing to the Copa Sudamericana round-of-16 through a 1-0 win on aggregate. Edinson Cavani returns from suspension on Sunday.
Despite still missing important players that are on the Argentina NT in the Olympics, Boca has Edinson Cavani back and that’s major news for them like last Wednesday when he scored the winning goal to advance in Copa Sudamericana. Instituto has been solid lately, they won’t have striker Rodriguez but they’ve scored at least once in 9 of their last 11 games so I’ll go for the OVER on this very low totals line.