River Plate vs Union Santa Fe Predictions

Thursday’s Superliga Argentina action sees River Plate doing battle with Union de Santa Fe. River will be looking to return to winning ways after their weekend defeat.

After losing their first game in hand on those above them in a 1-0 home defeat to Defensa y Justicia on Saturday, River desperately need an improved performance in this match. Currently 11th and 17 points behind leaders Racing, Los Millonarios conquering of the Copa Libertadores has come at a price and they’re now left playing catch up in the Superliga.

Nonetheless, with 3 games less played than most of the sides stationed above them, Marcelo Gallardo’s troops have the chance to move up the table, but need to start hitting the ground running. A move for Belgrano captain Matias Suarez looks set be finalised prior to the weekend’s match with Patronato and adds much needed quality to an attack looking short of options at the moment, but without him for this one, those taking to the pitch will be still be looking to extend a run that reads just 1 defeat from their last 13 home league games.

Meanwhile, Union de Santa Fe don’t look like hitting the heights of last season, in which they secured continental football for the first time. Leonardo Madelon’s men had started the campaign in bright fashion but ended 2018 in very poor form, taking just 1 point from 5 matches, seeing them drop to their current 12th placed standing.

A friendly win over champions Boca Juniors last weekend does have confidence somewhat restored in Tatengue ranks but whether they can bring that into competitive action remains another question; alongside whether or not they’ll be able to cope with the loss of key forward Frano Soldano, who has joined Olympiacos over the mid-season break.

Ultimately, if River want to stay in the hunt at the right end of the table, this a match they simply have to be winning and they cannot afford to slip-up once again. For all their domestic struggles and distraction, they’ve still won 8 of their last 13 league matches at the Monumental and come into this one knowing they’re by far a stronger outfit than Union on paper.

All things considered, we really like the look of backing River to win this one to nil. They’ve kept 7 clean sheets in the aforementioned 13 matches and with Union having failed to score in 4 of their last 5 league outings and also now without Soldano, a comfortable 2-0 margin of home victory could well be on the cards.