2023-04-22 23:45:26

River, leader of the Professional Soccer League with a good advantage over its closest rival, will assume this Sunday the first classic in Martín Demichelis’s cycle as coach when it receives Independiente, which has accumulated 11 appearances without winning, in the outstanding match that it proposes the date 13.

The classic will be played this Sunday from 20.30 in the Más Monumental stadium, in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Núñez, with refereeing by Andrés Merlos and television signal ESPN Premium.

There will not have been many occasions in which there is such an express and wide difference in individual category and collective performance in a classic as important for Argentine soccer as it is every time the “Millionaire” and “Los Diablos Rojos” face each other. Avellaneda.

The Millionaire, comes from beating Sporting Cristal, from Peru, in Copa Libertadores, adds seven consecutive wins and all with an undefeated fence, which allows goalkeeper Franco Armani to accumulate 639 minutes without conceding goals and looking to beat his own record of 965 achieved in 2018.

The team led by Martín Demichelis stands out for the number of good players it has and as proof it is worth remembering that last weekend, when he beat Newell’s in Rosario (1-0), Demichelis left on the bench Jonatan Maidana, Salomón Rondón, Pablo Solari, Matías Suárez and Lucas Beltrán, who could calmly be starters in other teams, including Independiente.

Demichelis did not start his cycle well, with compensated defeats against Belgrano, in Córdoba, and Arsenal, in Núñez, but he straightened his course, changed his scheme several times and also emerged successful in a couple of games in which he was complicated, against Argentinos Juniors and Lanús, on both occasions with controversial arbitration decisions at the request of the VAR.

However, the match against Independiente is a classic and although his rival is going through a discreet reality, he has been directed for 10 days by Ricardo Zielinski, a DT who knew how to embitter River on more than one occasion, the most relevant when being the coach de Belgrano de Córdoba sent him down in 2011.

The “Russian” always has a formula to complicate River, since he also modified it with Atlético Tucumán, when he deprived him of a title in March 2020 and left it served to Boca who turned Olympic after beating Gymnastics in La Bombonera, also with Estudiantes de La Plata, knew how to beat him, and this Sunday he hopes to give him a new headache.

Independiente overcomes a critical financial state, an institutional chaos that worsened when its president Fabián Doman resigned just six months after taking office with promises that were not even close to fulfilling, to leave everything in the hands of Néstor Grindetti, the vice president and also mayor of Lanús who will be in charge for 30 days.

On the last date, with the debut of the “Russian” Zielinski as coach in the classic against Racing, the “Red Devils” drew 1-1 and reached 11 games without winning in the Professional League, with seven draws and four losses, although at least he showed a certain order and responded to an express request from his fans: he played with mettle.

This Independiente, which suffers from relegation as it is only two points behind Arsenal and Unión, the last in the annual table, the position that will mean the third relegation of the season along with the two worst averages, will clearly go to Monumental as ” period” although Zielinski will be working to complicate River as much as possible.

As for the formations, River will go with the best available, including Esequiel Barco, a former Independiente, in his best moment since he arrived at the club.

Independiente, meanwhile, will not have a key piece like left-back Ayrton Costa, suspended, but Zielinski will replace him with the experienced Damián Pérez, and also DT put together a system with one important player per line, two in the areas, the goalkeeper Rodrigo Rey in his own and the Uruguayan Martín Cauteruccio in the rival’s, plus captain Iván Marcone in midfield.

In the history, adding amateurism and professionalism, they played 194 times with a clear River Plate advantage of 82 wins against 58 for Independiente, plus 54 draws.

Probable formations of River and Independiente:

River: Franco Armani; Milton Helmet, Leandro Gonzalez Perez, Paulo Diaz and Enzo Diaz; Enzo Perez, Rodrigo Aliendro, Ignacio Fernandez and Nicholas Dela Cruz; Lucas Beltran and Ezequiel Ship. DT: Martin Demichelis.

Independent: Rodrigo Rey; Luciano Gomez, Sergio Barreto and Joaquin Laso; Cristian Báez and Damián Pérez; Iván Marcone, Agustín Mulet and Mauricio Cuero; Martín Cauteruccio and Matías Giménez. DT: Ricardo Zielinski.