Newell’s Old Boys new coach Sebastian Mendez experienced a happy debut at the club as his men beat Barracas Central 1-0 away at Huracan last Friday, with Juan Ramirez netting the winner in the 92nd minute. La Lepra put an end to their two-match losing streak in league action and made it nine points in six Liga Profesional rounds, also approaching the Copa Sudamericana zone in the aggregate table. At home, Newell’s won two and lost one in this competition so far.

Independiente Rivadavia don’t give up on their fight to stay in the top flight. On Thursday, La Lepra left very good impressions to beat Gimnasia LP 1-0 at home, with Lautaro Rios scoring in the first half. Martin Cicotello’s men accumulated ten points after six Liga Profesional rounds, having stopped a two-match losing streak in this competition. However, it’s not yet enough to climb out of the relegation zone in the point-average table (now trailing Deportivo Riestra by one point). Independiente lost 1-0 at Huracan in their last road game after four without defeat on away turf (winning two and drawing two).

I expect nothing but a tight, low scoring game here like most of Newell’s games. They’ve scored only 4 goals after 6 rounds and to find their latest game with 3+ goals we have to go to April when they lost 1-3 against Boca. Similar situation for Independiente Rivadavia who has only 1 game with 3+ goals in their last 9. A draw would be a good result for the visitors, while the hosts usually struggle to score so I’ll go with the UNDER.

BET: UNDER 2 @ 1.79