Argentinos Juniors vs Boca Juniors Predictions

Sunday’s Superliga Argentina action sees Argentinos Juniors playing host to Boca Juniors. The visitors will be looking to claim the three points that would aid their title defence cause.

Tensions will be running high at the Estadio Diego Armando Maradona, with this fixture something of a grudge match ever since Carlos Tevez broke the leg of then Argentinos man Ezequiel Ham with a terrible challenge back in 2015. Tevez has not returned to face Argentinos since the incident but is set to be involved on Sunday, Boca can expect a less than warm welcome but the challenge they look set to face on the pitch appears less intimidating.

During the off-season, Argentinos lost their key striking duo last season as Lucas Barrios and Nicolas Gonzalez departed and that’s certainly showed on the pitch, with El Bicho failing to notch in 5 of their last 6 outings, the latest of which a dismal 2-0 cup defeat to second tier Temperley last weekend. Alfredo Berti’s men are likely to finish in a reasonably strong position come the end of the season but look light on options going forward at the moment and they do not arrive in good shape as a result.

Meanwhile, although Boca have attentions firmly fixed on the first leg of the Copa Libertadores quarter final clash with Cruzeiro, which will be played midweek, they can ill afford to drop points in this trip and boss Guillermo Barros Schelotto will still field a strong side, despite some rotation being expected.

After over 600 days of leading the Superliga pack, Boca do not find themselves top of the table after taking 7 points from their opening 4 matches but that’s not really much of a concern with the season still in its infancy. The visitors had previously lost away to Estudiantes and dropped points to Huracan but having recorded 3 straight wins across all competitions, they come into Sunday’s clash with plenty of momentum behind them.

Ultimately, when looking at the odds available for this fixture, the price on Boca to win immediately jumps out and is a bet we are more than happy to make. Whilst they are set to rest some players, Boca have by far the deepest squad in the entire country and you could argue that even their second and third strings would challenge for the title, so said rotation is not likely to have a massive impact on the game.

Argentinos are typically quite a powerful force in front of their own fans but they’ve been less than impressive in recent weeks and their attacking struggles are too difficult to ignore. Fresh off the back of a defeat to a less than inspiring Temperley outfit, it’s very hard to envisage Argentinos standing up to the challenge facing Boca presents and we can see the visitors running out 1-0 victors come full time.