San Lorenzo vs River Plate Predictions

Sunday’s Superliga Argentina action features a clash between two of the country’s giants, as San Lorenzo and River Plate go head to head. A tight game is expected overall in what is one of the calendar’s biggest fixtures.

Whilst San Lorenzo did well to take a point from a difficult trip to face Union de Santa Fe last time out, El Ciclon’s start to the season has been far from spectacular and with a fairly weak looking squad, the side do not look like matching last season’s third place finish.

Boss Claudio Biaggio is coming under some real pressure amidst sustained poor showings on the pitch and could really do with picking up a win sooner rather than later, having thus far drawn with Tigre, Lanus and Union, making it an uninspiring start to the campaign coupled with the fact the only advanced from a continental clash with Chilean minnows Deportes Temuco on a rulebook technicality. Nonetheless, San Lorenzo are typically a very strong outfit in front of their own fans, having lost just 2 of their 14 home matches last season and will be looking to prove that once again on Sunday.

Meanwhile, River’s start to the new Superliga campaign hasn’t exactly been brilliant either with them also drawing all 3 of their matches, but Los Millonarios arrive in buoyant mood after advancing to the quarter-finals of the Copa Libertadores with a 3-0 win over Racing Club in midweek.

Marcelo Gallardo’s troops are targeting the league title this season as they look to end arch rivals Boca’s monopoly over the Argentine game, but they’ll have to find more of a killer instinct if they are to do so. Whilst the visitors were lucky to draw 0-0 on opening day against Huracan, they’ve since gone on to somehow share goalless stalemates with both Belgrano and Argentinos Juniors despite completely dominating both fixtures.

Ultimately, whilst this is not a game quite as heated as a San Lorenzo vs Huracan or Boca vs River derby, there’s no doubting the two clubs consider one another rivals and as such, the stakes are that little but higher and both sides will be desperate for a win that would really kickstart their respective campaigns.

With this a match of real importance even at this early stage of the campaign, a tight game is expected to be in order and for that exact reason we like the look of backing the draw at more than reasonable odds. As touched upon above, both sides have draw all of their league matches so far and that’s not a fact that looks like ending on Sunday, with a 0-0 draw on the cards. River are undoubtedly the slightly stronger of the two at this moment in time, but San Lorenzo are always difficult to beat as hosts and should be able to take something from the game.