Velez vs River
Thanks to Matías Pellegrini’s third goal in the last two matches, Vélez Sarsfield rescued a valuable point in their visit to Defensa y Justicia last weekend, drawing 1–1 after falling behind. As a result, El Fortín remain unbeaten in the Torneo Apertura and have collected 11 points (three wins and two draws), staying at the top of Group A and also in the upper positions of the overall table. In addition, Guillermo Barros Schelotto’s team maintained a perfect home record in 2026, having defeated Talleres and Boca Juniors (both by 2–1 scorelines).
River Plate are going through a very delicate moment. On Matchday 4, they once again delivered a poor performance and suffered a deserved 1–0 defeat away to Argentinos Juniors. As a result, El Millonario are now three league matches without a win (one draw and two losses) and have made a disappointing start to the Torneo Apertura, with seven points from their first five games. In fact, Marcelo Gallardo’s men have won only one of their last six away matches (two draws and three defeats). On Tuesday, February 17, River won 1-0 over Ciudad Bolívar in the first round of the Copa Argentina.
Can’t see why River would be slight favorites here considering how poor they’ve played lately. They’ve only collected 1 point in their last 3 league games, and they were barely able to beat a very small 2nd tier team in Copa Argentina with a late penalty, so I’m going to take the still undefeated Velez at this odds.