River Plate vs Rosario Central

River Plate couldn’t hold onto their lead last Wednesday and ended up settling for a disappointing 1-1 home stalemate against San Lorenzo in an uneventful game. Having lost only one of their last nine league matches (four victories and four draws), El Millonario made it 40 points in the Liga Profesional, which drops them out of the fight for the league title but keeps them into the Copa Libertadores’ zone in the aggregate table. At home, River are unbeaten in their last four domestic matches, winning two and drawing two. Marcos Acuna, German Pezzella and Claudio Echeverri overcame their injuries and are available.

Rosario Central continue finding trouble to overcome their irregularity. Last weekend, the team couldn’t stop one of the best teams in the league and ended up losing to Racing Club 2-0 at home. That result means El Canalla won only one of their last nine league games, along with four stalemates and four defeats, which leaves them on 29 points in the Liga Profesional and below the 20th place of the aggregate table. On a positive note, Central won their last away game to stop a seven-match winless streak of three draws and four losses as the visiting side in this competition. Agustin Sandez (sent off against Racing Club) and Jonathan Gomez (reached the yellow-card limit) are suspended for Sunday. Facundo Mallo and Carlos Quintana remain out.

Too many missings for Rosario Central: their two best defenders Mallo and Quintana are still out, and they will also have important missings in attack because playmaker Malcorra and striker Campaz are also injured. That’s not all because defender Sandez and midfielder Jonathan Gomez are suspended so I expect River to take advantage of a depleted rival and finally secure a Copa Libertadores 2025 place.

BET: River -1.25 @ 1.81