Argentinos Jrs vs Instituto
Argentinos Juniors are getting worse game after game under coach Pablo Guede. Last Sunday, the team were dominated from beginning to end and succumbed to a deserved 3-1 away defeat at Rosario Central, a result that extended their winless run to six Copa Liga Profesional matches (two stalemates and four losses). El Bicho remain on 12 points in group A, a poor campaign that are now displacing them from the Copa Sudamericana spots in the aggregate rankings. At home, Argentinos collected eight of those points as a product of two victories, two draws and one loss.
Instituto played one of their worst matches in the Copa Liga Profesional last Saturday, when they couldn’t even create goalscoring chances and ended up losing to Velez Sarsfield 1-0 at home. That result put an end to their seven-match unbeaten streak of two victories and five draws. Therefore, La Gloria have been displaced from the playoff spots in group A on 15 points, now trailing fourth-placed Colon by two, and they are yet to clinch their top-flight spot for next season, leading Sarmiento, Colon, Huracan and Union Santa Fe (who share the relegation place in the aggregate table) by five points. Instituto are without defeat in their last six on away turf, having won two and drawn four. Striker Adrian Martinez returns after overcoming a muscle problem.
Argentinos has been awful but there’s one thing that they are good at, and that’s scoring. They have one of the leagues top scorer in Lucas Gondou and a top 3 attack in the league with 16 goals scored, but their problem is defensively where they conceded 19. Instituto will have their top scorer Adrian Martinez back from injury, both teams must win to get closer to a playoff spot, so I expect an open game here.