Newell’s vs Lanus
Newell’s Old Boys fans will have felt devastated after the team’s 3-3 away stalemate at newcomers Deportivo Riestra last time out, when they conceded the equaliser in the sixth minute of stoppage time. As a result, La Lepra claimed a single victory across their last ten league games, drawing five and losing four to make it 17 points, which keeps them five points behind the last Copa Sudamericana berth in the aggregate table. Newell’s beat Tigre 1-0 in their last home match to break a five-match winless streak of two stalemates and three defeats at Estadio Marcelo Bielsa.
Lanus fans will have felt frustrated after the team’s scoreless home stalemate against Gimnasia LP last Monday, when the visitors received two red cards. El Granate are now on seven league games without a win, drawing five and losing two, which makes it 20 points in the Liga Profesional. It’s an irregular campaign but still enough to occupy one of the Copa Sudamericana berths in the aggregate table. In fact, Lanus are winless in their last eight domestic matches on away turf, with four draws and four losses since beating Belgrano 1-0 in March.
They’ve both been struggling lately to score and win games, besides Newell’s 3-3 draw last week because they were coming from scoring only 1 in the previous 7 matches. Lanus also has only 3 goals scored in their last 7 matches while conceding 6 in them, so I can’t expect anything but a tight game.