Racing will have an unbeatable opportunity this Thursday to qualify for the round of 16 of the South American Cup. For the last date of the group stage and with ESPN television, they will receive River Plate from Montevideo from 7:15 p.m. at the Cilindro de Avellaneda. And a draw will be enough to be one of the eight teams that will go through. With 12 units, the Academy leads zone B, three points behind Melgar from Peru who, at the same time, will be local in Arequipa against Cuiabá from Brazil and will bet on a victory of their own and a defeat for Racing in order to qualify by difference of goal.
A priori, the game is accessible to Fernando Gago’s team. The Uruguayan River lost four of the five games it has played so far and only comes to fulfill the commitment, with no greater motivation than to play a decent game. In the Apertura tournament of his country, River is in the middle of the table with 19 points to seven of the leader Liverpool, who last Sunday defeated him 2-1.
The Copa Sudamericana is a great goal for Racing. Much more so after Boca eliminated him on penalties in one of the semifinals of the League Cup. There is a consensus that the Academy was one of the teams that played the best football in the first half of the year and must ratify it now that the Professional League championship is about to begin and the South American matches are approaching, whose round of 16 They will be raffled this Friday at noon at the Conmebol headquarters in Luque (Paraguay).
Goalkeeper Gaston Gomezexpelled against Melgar, and striker Enzo Copettisuspended for yellow cards, will not be in the game and their places will be taken by Matias Tagliamonte and Javier Correa, respectively. Besides, Hannibal Morenowho drags a muscular discomfort, accumulates two warnings and would be preserved, so they would play Jonathan Gomez (with Leonel Miranda as center steering wheel) or Maico Quiroz. Meanwhile, Fernando Gago is evaluating variants to strengthen the squad for the second half. At first, under observation is the 28-year-old midfielder Nicolás Oroz, who returned from his loan to Volos in Greece and is training with good chances of remaining in the club and being the first addition for the second part of the year in which Racing will seek to crown all the good it has been doing up to now with a title.
