Argentinos Juniors v Newell’s Old Boys
Liga AFA
26th July 2021
🏟️ Estadio Diego Armando Maradona, Buenos Aires
After a dramatic opening day win in which Newell’s came back from two goals down to win 3-2, Fernando Gamboa is expected to reward at least one of his new signings with a starting place after they came to the rescue from the bench against Talleres. Juan Garro, who scored one of the three Lepra goals, is tipped to take the place of Ignacio Scocco up front for Newell’s after Scocco received a late red card in the Talleres game, ruling him out of the trip to Argentinos Juniors.
In his press conference on Thursday, Gamboa admitted that the team had spent the week trying to correct the mistakes they made against Talleres in the first half. Newell’s conceded twice from counter-attacks, having taken the ascendency in the match. Talleres opened the scoring seconds after Jerónimo Cacciabue had rattled the bar for Newell’s in an attack which left La Lepra open at the back, allowing Michael Santos to get on the end of a long clearance from the back to score.
Although the rojinegro‘s prowess from set-pieces pegged Talleres back in the second half, with cameos from new signings Gabriel Compagnucci and Garro, the threat of the opposition counter was there throughout and Gamboa will be looking for an improvement from his defence when The Lepers face Maradona’s first team on Monday night.
Argentinos welcome Newell’s off the back of an opening day dead rubber against Independiente (0-0). Not much can be taken from that result as they played their Reserve Team in anticipation of a Copa Libertadores match against River Plate. In that game, three days after the draw with El Rojo, they suffered a home defeat to in-form River Plate to crash out of the competition, ending an impressive campaign which saw them win Group F with 4 wins from 6.
With continental action over for Argentinos for another year, manager Gabriel Milito will restore his first-choice players for the Newell’s match as El Bicho begin concentrating solely on the Liga AFA once again.
Argentinos v Newell’s Team News
Maxi Rodríguez is not yet fit enough to make his return to first-team action and has been left out of the squad for the game. Ignacio Scocco serves a ban and is expected to be replaced by Juan Garro who will join Jonatan Cristaldo and Ramiro Sordo in a three-man attack.
Midfielder Julián Fernández, who suffered an injury in the Talleres game, will be replaced by Juan Sforza in midfield.
Argentinos’ defender Carlos Quintana is likely to miss out after suffering an injury against River Plate in the Copa Libertadores and will be replaced by Lucas Villalba.
Argentinos Juniors Probable XI: Chaves, Sandoval, Mac Allister, Torren, Villalba, E.Gómez, Moyano, J.Gómez, Hauche, Ávalos, Cabrera.
📺 Watch Argentinos Juniors v Newell’s on Monday 26th July: Live on Fanatiz
⏰ Kick-off: 20.15 ARG | 00.15 UK (Tues)
