Defensa y Justicia – River Plate

Defensa y Justicia put up a very good fight on their visit to Racing Club last Saturday, but they couldn’t face the hosts’ offensive power and ended up losing 4-3. That result represented their third defeat across the last five league matches, along with a single victory and one draw. As a result, El Halcon remain on 15 points in 18 Liga Profesional rounds, just three above bottom-placed Barracas Central in the respective table. As a result, they remain six points behind the Copa Sudamericana zone in the aggregate rankings. However, Defensa are unbeaten in their last four at home in this competition, winning three and drawing one. There is no relevant injury news for coach Pablo De Muner to host River Plate on Friday.

River Plate are virtually out of the fight for the league title. Last Friday, they had to settle for a 1-1 home stalemate against leaders Velez Sarsfield in an entertaining game. That result means El Millonario are on three without a win in this competition, drawing two and losing one, which places them on 26 points in the Liga Profesional, 11 behind the top of the table. River won only one of their last eight domestic matches as the visiting side, alongside four stalemates and three losses. On Tuesday 22, River lost 3-0 away at Brazil’s Atletico Mineiro in the first leg of the Copa Libertadores semi-finals. Marcos Acuna, affected by a muscle problem, will miss out on Friday. Coach Marcelo Gallardo will pick an alternative XI here.

Defensa has been poor this season but at least they have a good streak going on at home, and they should definitely be more focused on this game than River who are coming from a devastating defeat at Brazil and they need to focus on a miracle next Tuesday at home to win by 3 or more goals to advance to the Copa Libertadores final.

BET: Defensa y Justicia +0.25 @ 2.03