River Plate vs Rosario Central Match Preview

River Plate welcomes Rosario Central for the 2nd round of the Copa Liga Profesional at the Libertadores de América.

The hosts are coming from a heavy, and quite unexpected defeat to Banfield in their opening match of the season. Despite their good start in the game, they were just unable to take the lead, and before halftime, they were back in the score by 1-2. In the second half, they tried to make an overturn, but they were unable to hurt their opponents and the final score of 1-3 was really shocking for the team of Marcelo Gallardo.

Tonight against Rosario, they will try their best to get their first three points. Striker Rafael Santos Borre is unavailable (he was the scorer against Banfield) as he was tested positive for Covid-19, as well as Ignacio Fernadez, who got injured in the previous round.

On the other hand, Rosario Central did well in the first match of the season and prevailed 2-1 over Godoy Cruz. The team has improved a lot since last season and they had a really good performance. This positive result gave the team the motivation they needed to fight for a good spot in the group.

Rosario Central faces a difficult opponent today away from home, but they can try to make it difficult for River Plate, as Banfield did, and maybe get a positive result at the end as well. The guests are expected to play with the same squad, as Kily Gonzalez was pleased by his team's performance in the opening game.

After such a bad start, River Plate has to surpass the previous heavy defeat and seek their first win today against Rosario Central. I expect the hosts to enter the pitch agressively and determined to grab a positive result. The odds for the home team to win are quite low, but I think it's a pretty "safe" pick.