River vs Argentinos Jrs
River Plate were knocked out by Rosario Central in the Copa Liga Profesional semi-finals, losing on penalties after a scoreless draw at Estadio Mario Alberto Kempes. However, Martin Demichelis’ men finished as the best team in the aggregate table (lifting the Liga Profesional title in July). On a sorry note, El Millonario won only one of their last five league commitments, drawing two and losing two in regular time. Last season, River won 17 out of 20 home matches, along with one draw and two losses.
Argentinos Juniors produced a terrible campaign in the Copa Liga Profesional (closed by a 1-1 away draw to Barracas Central), but Rosario Central’s title opened up a Copa Sudamericana berth for them, ending in 12th spot of the aggregate table. In fact, El Bicho made it nine league matches without a win (four stalemates and five losses) and they also are winless in their last five on the road, taking only two points in that spell. Several important players left the club, including Gabriel Avalos (sold to Independiente) and Francisco Gonzalez Metilli (Belgrano).
Even if River was not in top form last semester, they will face here an Argentinos Jrs that won’t have several important players: their best midfielder and best striker (Redondo and Gondou) are with the Argentinean U23 team trying to qualify to the Olympics, plus they lost another top striker like Gabriel Avalos and captain defender Miguel Torren so I expect the hosts to take advantage of this rebuilding team and take the home win.