River vs Defensa y Justicia
River Plate wasted a big chance last Monday, when they were leading on two occasions and ended up drawing 2-2 away at Velez Sarsfield, one of the worst teams in the league at the moment. However, having lost only one of their last 13 matches in this competition (ten victories and two stalemates), El Millonario made it 41 points to open a six-point gap over second-placed San Lorenzo at the top of the Liga Profesional table. In fact, River are on six home victories in a row in domestic action. Enzo Diaz, Paulo Diaz and Enzo Perez are still recovering from their injuries and will miss out on Saturday.
Defensa y Justicia found it tough to handle Lautaro Escalante’s sending-off and ended up drawing 1-1 at home against Racing Club in an intense match last Sunday. That result means El Halcon made it four games without a win in league action, drawing three and losing one since beating Colon 2-0 at home in round 14. Nevertheless, Julio Vaccari’s men continue performing well in the Liga Profesional this term, occupying fifth spot of the respective table on 30 points. Defensa lost 2-1 at Rosario Central in their last domestic trip, which broke a three-game unbeaten streak of two victories and one draw on the road in this competition.
River are the leaders and very possibly the champions of this tournament but this handicap is too big to pass. They won’t have their very important midfielder Enzo Perez, they are coming from a couple of bad results, and Defensa is a solid team that can make this a tight game.