River – Instituto
River Plate faced more difficulties than expected in their Torneo Apertura debut. Thanks to a goal by Matías Rojas just three minutes before the final whistle, Marcelo Gallardo’s team managed to secure a 1-1 draw in their visit to Platense. El Millonario, now with their first point of the year, has lost just one of their last five league matches, alongside two wins and two draws. Moreover, River remains unbeaten in their last five domestic games at home, with three wins and two draws. All first-team regulars are available for Wednesday’s match against Instituto. Instituto delighted their fans in the debut of their new head coach, Pedro Troglio. Exceeding expectations, the team secured an impressive 3-0 victory over Gimnasia LP at home. With this result, La Gloria earned their first three points in Group B and ended a two-match losing streak in the league. However, Instituto struggled on the road recently, earning only two points from their last 21 available since their 2-1 win over Banfield in September. There are no injury concerns ahead of Wednesday’s match away at River Plate. River didn’t play as expected in the first round against a solid Platense but this should be a different story, at home and against this Instituto that is not that good in defense but they’ve scored in 8 of their last 9 league games, so I think this is a big handicap and I’ll go with the OVER because I expect an open game where both teams can score.