Deportivo Riestra vs Barracas Central
Deportivo Riestra took advantage of the final match of the regular phase to rotate part of their XI and ended up drawing 1-1 away to Godoy Cruz, who were relegated to the second division. El Malevo finished third in Group B with 28 points (despite collecting just one point from the last nine available) and also secured a place in the Copa Sudamericana via the aggregate table (will be the first international appearance in the club’s history). Riestra lost 1-0 to Independiente in their most recent home match, which ended their 27-game unbeaten run at the Guillermo Laza (15 wins and 12 draws). Ignacio Arce, Facundo Miño and Nicolás Sansotre return after resting last weekend.
Barracas Central had to struggle more than expected last Monday and, helped by several controversial refereeing decisions, ended up drawing 1–1 at home against Huracán. With that result, the team finished sixth in Group A with 23 points and will not have home-field advantage in this phase. They also fell out of the Sudamericana qualification spots in the aggregate table but qualified on Saturday as Lanùs became Sudamericana champions. In fact, despite reaching the playoffs, El Guapo have won only one of their last nine league matches (six draws and two defeats). On a positive note, Barracas remain unbeaten away from home in this tournament, with three wins and five draws.
Historic season for these two teams who not long ago used to play in 3rd or even 4th tier divisions. Riestra has been more solid and regular specially when playing at home where they had an amazing undefeated run before the 0-1 vs Independiente two weeks ago. Besides that game they had scored in their other 8 of the last 9 games while Barracas has a similar record with goals in 6 of their last 7 matches, so I’ll take the OVER here also because Barracas will miss important defender Insua who is suspended.