Belgrano vs River
Belgrano made their fans proud in their return to the first division last Sunday as they cancelled out one of the best teams in the league, drawing 0-0 away at Racing Club thanks to an interesting performance. Guillermo Farre’s men grabbed their first point after promotion and are already level with Sarandi Arsenal (and Instituto) in the relegation table. El Pirata are unbeaten in the last five league matches, winning four and drawing one. Belgrano also are on four home victories in a row.
River Plate started life after Marcelo Gallardo in a positive way: last weekend, the team didn’t find any difficulties to beat CA Central Cordoba 2-0 away from home, with Ignacio Fernandez and Pablo Solari scoring in coach Martin Demichelis’ debut. Along with the first three points of the season, El Millonario made it six victories across their last seven league matches (losing only once in that spell) and also extended their winning streak on away turf to five domestic games (since losing at Boca Juniors 1-0 in the Superclasico in September). Nevertheless, Nicolas De la Cruz, Paulo Diaz and Agustin Palavecino will miss one more game due to their respective injuries.
River is clearly the better team of the two but I expect Belgrano on their first game in the top flight to put up a fight in a packed stadium and take something from this game.