River v Velez

River Plate are still finding trouble to overcome their irregularity in the league. Last time out, the team just registered a disappointing scoreless away stalemate at Platense. As a result, El Millonario are now on 25 points in the Liga Profesional, trailing leaders Velez Sarsfield by 11 despite losing only one of their last ten in this competition (winning three and drawing six in that time). However, El Millonario remain into the Copa Libertadores’ zone in the aggregate table. On a sorry note, River lost 1-0 to Talleres in their last home match to break a 16-game unbeaten streak of nine victories and seven draws as the hosting side in domestic action.

Velez Sarsfield recovered from their little slump two weeks ago, when claiming a hard-fought 1-0 home success over Racing Club thanks to a strike from Braian Romero in the 86th minute. El Fortin made it ten victories across their last 12 league matches, drawing one and losing one to stay as Liga Profesional leaders on 36 points, five above Huracan and Talleres with ten rounds to go. A 3-0 away defeat at Rosario Central in round 16 stopped Velez’s five-game unbeaten streak as the visiting side, with four wins and one draw.

Velez are by far the best team in the league right now and a clear candidate to win the championship as they are 5 points ahead of the 2nd placed teams. They should have a tough challenge to visit the always strong River, but the hosts might use a mixed lineup because they play at Brazil on Tuesday the Copa Libertadores semifinal. I’ll go with the OVER as they have a long squad with good players and Velez won’t just defend because they are the best attacking team in the league with 30 goals scored, 7 more than the 2nd best.

BET: OVER 2 @ 1.81