River Plate vs Banfield
River Plate couldn’t handle Marcelo Gallardo’s decision to field an alternative XI last weekend, when they ended up drawing 0-0 away at Defensa y Justicia. El Millonario are now on four league games without a win, with three stalemates and one defeat in that span. As a result, they accumulated 27 points in 19 Liga Profesional rounds, which leaves them out of the fight for the title but into one of the Copa Libertadores’ spots in the aggregate table. River lost only one of their last 18 at home in domestic action, winning nine and drawing eight. On Tuesday 29, River drew 0-0 against Brazil’s Atletico Mineiro at home in the return leg of the Copa Libertadores’ semi-finals, losing 3-0 on aggregate.
Banfield took a big breather in the context of a hectic season last Sunday, when they reversed the score to beat Racing Club 2-1 at home with Bruno Sepulveda and Ignacio Rodriguez scoring. El Taladro put an end to their three-match winless streak of one draw and two defeats in league action to make it 21 points in the Liga Profesional, which allows them to open a healthy nine-gap over the bottom spot in the aggregate table, occupied by Sarmiento. On away turf, Banfield won only one of the last five, drawing two and losing two. There is no relevant injury news for Sunday.
River suffered a heartbreaking elimination in the Copa Libertadores semi final but they need to put it behind as fast as possible and start winning games otherwise they could miss next year’s Copa Libertadores. The problem is that they are really struggling to score, getting only 1 goal in the last 6 games and it came through a penalty kick, so even though they are the best team of these two, I think this handicap could be too big to beat.