Rosario Central vs River Plate Predictions

Friday’s Superliga Argentina action sees Rosario Central doing battle with River Plate. The visitors will be desperate to continue their resurgence by claiming all three points once again.

Hosts Rosario Central could really do with the win themselves to improve what hasn’t been the best of campaigns, their Copa Argentina win aside. Languishing down in 17th, Los Canallas have performed well below par throughout the season so far and have just 20 points to their name from 17 matches, having won just 5 of their games.

Edgardo Bauza’s troops did well to secure a point in their trip to arch rivals Newell’s last weekend but are still in poor form and haven’t won any of their last 4 Superliga games. Having scored just once over said matches, Central are really struggling in attacking areas at the moment and that has confidence low coming into Friday’s game.

Meanwhile, confidence certainly isn’t low in the visiting ranks, with River Plate now over their poor start to 2019 and in fantastic form. El Millonario started the year with 3 consecutive home defeats but have now beaten Godoy Cruz, Velez and Racing to put together a run of 3 wins, during which they’ve scored an impressive average of 2.66 goals a game.

Now up to 7th and just 4 points shy of the all important Libertadores places, every game is of paramount importance for Marcelo Gallardo’s troops and there’s no doubting they’ll be travelling to Rosario targeting all 3 points, something they’ll be confident in getting, considering they’re 4 matches unbeaten against the hosts and typically fare well when playing them.

Ultimately, with Central in poor form and looking short in attack and River now appearing back at their best, it’s more than apparent who the favourites to win Friday’s game is. Man for man, River are by far a stronger outfit than the hosts and will be desperate to translate that onto the pitch on Friday.

All things considered, we cannot see River slipping up here and as such, backing an away win looks the only way to play as far as the betting goes. If this match was being played a couple of weeks ago, we’d give the hosts far more of a chance but River Plate are firmly in their stride and should be able to edge what will likely be a fairly tight game by a 1-0 margin of victory.