Rosario Central v Newell’s Old Boys
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Thursday 21st July – 8:30PM KO
This is a big one for both sides, the Rosario city derby is what these teams mostly live for. The present of both teams is very different. Newell’s drew the last three games after a very good start to the season, so they are still close to top of the league. Rosario Central on the other hand had a rough start to the season with a change of manager, lots of problems signing new players, but they are finally picking up their game a little bit.
Nevertheless, Newell’s still look better than Central. Newell’s will again be without goalkeeper Ramiro Macagno, who is recovering from a muscle injury and that same goes for left back and captain Leonel Vangioni. The left back position is for Martin Luciano. The 18-year-old midfielder did well as left back last season when Vangioni was out injured for a month, and will play there this time. Centre back, Willer Ditta, who has been one of the best centre backs in the Liga Profesional, returns from suspension.
Manager Carlos Tevez will have a full Rosario Central squad for this match. The big problem they have is the lack of scoring. In eight matches, they’ve only scored three goals and fans are even joking that Tevez should play himself. They signed Jhonatan Candia as their main striker, but he was far from first choice signing and struggles to get involved in the games he played. I’d fancy both unders and Newell’s to at least get a result here as Central just have nobody to score goals here, but I go for the latter.
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Prediction: Newell Double Chance, 1.50 on Betfair (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
River Plate v Gimnasia la Platao
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Friday 22nd July – 01:30AM KO
River Plate are having a shocker this season. They were surprisingly knocked out of the Copa Libertadores by Vélez Sarsfield and have only won two league games this season. It leaves the current champions in the bottom half of the table. All the big teams in Argentina have been pretty wasteful, so they can still get back to the top, but they’ll have to do that without striker Julian Álvarez, who joined Manchester City. With Lucas Beltrán, they signed another talented young striker to take his place, but despite Beltrán’s goal last week, it is too early to say he’ll be a proper replacement for Álvarez. River have improved their game in recent games and were unlucky with a draw at the weekend, but they are not in a position where you can guarantee they will win most games.
Gimnasia were top of the league earlier this season, but they lost two of their best attacking players. Winger Johan Carbonero signed for Racing and striker Cristian Tarragona, good for eight goals from his last ten games, did his ACL and is out for the season. Initially, Gimnasia seemed to deal well with those players missing, but the lack of strength up front has cost them. They failed to score in the last two games and couldn’t stay top of the league.
The biggest thing though, is that their defence is still steady. They barely give away chances and kept clean sheets in three of the last four matches. They lost left back Matias Melluso to an injury at the weekend, but replacement Nicolas Colazo is experienced and has already proven to be a decent replacement. With a steady Gimnasia defence and River struggling recently, I find it hard to see that there will be lots of goals in this game. That’s why I’d bet on unders.
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Prediction: Under 2.5 Goals, 1.87 on Betfair (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Written by an Andy verified content writer
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