River Plate, which is for the first time this season as the only leader, will visit Banfield for the 15th date of the Professional Football League (LPF) with the absence of ten players, some due to injury and others cited for the South American Qualifiers.
The match will be played at 6 pm at the Florencio Sola stadium, in Banfield, and will be refereed by Yael Falcón Pérez and televised by TNT Sports.
River finally reached the top of the domestic tournament, which it assumed for several dates as the only competition, without Copa Libertadores or Copa Argentina in between, since in both cases it was eliminated, and with the quality of its squad it snatched the first put to the surprising Talleres de Córdoba directed by the Uruguayan Alexander Medina.
The victory in the Superclásico against Boca last week was the step that allowed River de Gallardo, who at the end of the year ends his contract, to reach first place adding the success of the victory against his rival of always to the streak of seven matches without losing that he is going through, with five wins and two draws.
This River found in the forward Julián Alvarez (seven goals in the LPF) his figure, the unbalancing value that makes the difference and that appeared together when Matías Suárez, the best forward “Millionaire” until a few months ago began to suffer a synovitis in his right knee that will force him to be operated on.
River will have ten absences with the injuries of Suárez, Braian Romero (tear), Enzo Pérez (fissure of the fifth toe of the right foot) and Jonathan Maidana (muscular injury) and those mentioned as Franco Armani and Julián Alvarez with Argentina, Robert Rojas and David Martínez with Paraguay; Paulo Díaz with Chile; and Nicolás de la Cruz with Uruguay, therefore the trip to Banfield will bring its risks.
Faced with these shortcomings, Gallardo can resort to the youth and conditions of probable replacements such as defender Felipe Peña Biafore (20 years old), Santiago Simón (19, played against Boca), Federico Girotti (22) and Benjamin Rollheiser (21), supported by the experience that could be contributed by Enrique Bologna (39), Javier Pinola (38) or Bruno Zuculini (28).
Banfield, still led by Javier Sanguinetti, who remains in office despite a weak campaign in which he was beaten four times, although he is in the last places due to the lack of victories, just two (one in the past 10 dates), and too many draws as he racked up eight.
The “Drill” started the cycle of Sanguinetti reaching the final of the Diego Maradona Cup against Boca (he lost it on January 17 last in definition with shots from the penalty spot), but many of the players who significantly raised the level of that The team emigrated as Colombian goalkeeper Iván Arboleda, Jorge Rodríguez, Martín Payero, Agustín Fontana and Fabián Bordagaray, while others like Marcelino Galoppo ostensibly lowered their level.
However, Banfield has as a promising striker Juan Manuel Cruz, the son of “Gardener” Julio Cruz, who is the team’s goalscorer with five goals, 22 years old, in addition to hoping that Agustín Urzi (21) will regain those attributes that led him to be coveted by European teams, and how much he brings the experience and punch of Jesús Dátolo at 37 years of age.
In the history River Plate supremacy is absolute after 107 matches with an advantage of 64 wins against 18 and 25 draws, adding the “Millionaire” nine games without being defeated by the Banfileño in first division tournaments with six wins and three equalities.
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