Tigre v CA Platense

It is derby weekend in the Argentinian Primera Division. The set-up of the league is that all teams from the group meet each other once, plus this round where the biggest rivalries across the two groups are matched up. When you are talking about rivalries in Argentina, you often talk about lots of scuffles, irritations, emotions, and not so much about good football. We start this round with El Clásico de la zone norte, between two relatively small teams, but with high emotions.

Platense started the season well with seven points in three games, but their level dropped substantially, leaving them in the bottom half of the table. Tigre on the other hand have been playing well. They came up last season and expectations were fairly low, but so far they look composed, with good offensive play. They conceded a shock defeat against Aldosivi last week, but they dominated that away game and should have taken the victory. Nevertheless, they are still close to the play-off spots.

For this game Platense manager Claudio Spontón announced changes in the midfield, but the main problem is in defence and that is something the manager can't do that much about. Augusto Schott, Haibrany Ruiz Diaz and Gaston Sosa were all regulars in defence at the start of the season, but they missed the last game (or more) due to injury. That partly seems to run in line with the drop of form Platense experienced in the past weeks. None of the defenders are expected back for this game, so I expect Tigre to fully take advantage of that with the three points.

San Lorenzo v Huracan

San Lorenzo vs Huracán is considered the third-biggest rivalry in the country, at least based on combined league titles. As both teams are not performing that well in the league at the moment, the stakes will be high.

San Lorenzo finally claimed their first victory of the season last week, with a hard-fought but well deserved 1-0 victory away at Talleres de Córdoba. It was defensive midfielder Yeison Gordillo with the winning goal and that is exactly where San Lorenzo's problem lies; scoring goals. Gordillo scored his first goal since 2019 and his second since 2016 and his job is preventing them, rather than scoring, but as San Lorenzo barely finds the goal this season, it was a very welcome surprise.

Huracán are mid-table this season, although the difference to the top or in fact bottom, isn't that big, as they are even points with Tigre, who hold the last play-off spot and three points ahead of the bottom of their group. It is especially their inconsistency that stands out, with an away victory over Boca Juniors, but defeats against Arsenal de Sarandí and home to Godoy Cruz. Huracán score a bit easier than San Lorenzo, but in this derby I doubt they will come out and display attacking football. With San Lorenzo barely finding goals this season, I'd put my money on unders. 

Colón vs Union de Santa Fe

The third match is the Clásico Santafesino, the derby between the teams from Santa Fe. Historically, the two have been on a similar level. Neither of the teams have won a title, although they both finished in second place once. This year, both Union and Colon are in the fight for a play-off spot, with a second and a third place in their respective groups they are both in the charge for success.

From the last six head-to-heads between the two rivals, four ended in a draw. Union won the other two, but that there is little between the two teams is clear. For this game, Colón are still without Juan Sanchez Miño, who got injured at the start of the season. The experienced midfielder only joined this year, but he was projected to be one of the important players for this team. Neither Cólon nor Union are teams that score a lot of goals, as both team only once scored more than two goals in a game this season and in the head-to-heads it is even worse, as the last thirteen games totalled 19 goals. With 20-year-old striker Lucas Beltrán, Colón have got an exciting young striker in the side, but he is still very inconsistent. Union lacks a decent goalscorer and with the derby sentiments, I don't see a lot of goals in this game

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