Sarmiento vs Barracas Central
Sarmiento started off the 2023 league season in a decent way: they took a scoreless away stalemate at newly-promoted side Instituto, showing a good performance. The away point count for Israel Damonte’s men, who are now ten points above the relegation zone in the respective table (considering both newcomers failed to win in their debuts). However, El Verde also extended their winless run to seven league games (five draws and two defeats). At home, Sarmiento managed a single point across their last three matches since beating Sarandi Arsenal 2-0 in September.
Barracas Central will have to improve a lot in order to avoid being one of the worst teams in the league. Last Monday, a completely renewed squad suffered a 1-0 home loss to Godoy Cruz, showing a worrying performance from beginning to end. Following that result, El Guapo claimed a single victory across their last ten Liga Profesional matches (along with four draws and five defeats). However, Barracas won their last away game (2-1 over Sarandi Arsenal) to break a nine-match winless streak of three draws and six defeats on the road.
Can’t expect much from either of these teams: Sarmiento comes from a terribly boring 0-0 at Instituto, while Barracas looked awful at home vs Godoy Cruz, so we should have a low scoring game here.