San Lorenzo vs River
After a chaotic season last year, San Lorenzo seems to be finding some relief. The team secured a valuable 2-0 victory over Gimnasia LP away from home, with goals from Andres Vombergar and Emanuel Cecchini, earning six points out of six in the first two matches of the Torneo Apertura. This strong start positions them as leaders of Group B. Additionally, their 1-0 win against Talleres in the opening round ended a four-match winless streak at Estadio Pedro Bidegain (one draw and three defeats). Coach Miguel Russo still misses his star player, Iker Muniain, who remains sidelined due to a muscle injury.
River Plate is still far from showing their best version, but they come off a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Instituto at home, thanks to a header from Gonzalo Montiel in the 90th minute. With this result, El Millonario accumulated four points out of six in the Torneo Apertura, placing themselves in the upper part of Group B. Overall, Marcelo Gallardo’s team lost only one of their last six league matches, winning three and drawing two. However, River struggled away from home, collecting just four of the last 12 available points in this competition, with one win, one draw, and two losses.
San Lorenzo looked solid in the first two rounds, not brilliant but they managed to keep a clean sheet and win both, and they also did it in the 3 preseason friendlies where they didn’t receive a goal. River is of course the best of these two but they didn’t show much yet this year, this is a derby that will have a stadium packed of San Lorenzo fans and they should be able to at least avoid a defeat.