A crucial bottom-half battle in the Argentine Primera Division will play out on Monday morning when Argentinos Juniors take on Banfield at Estadio Diego Armando Maradona.
After 21 games in the Second Phase, these two sides are separated by just a single point, with the hosts currently in 23rd place with 23 points, while the visitors are 24th with 22 points.
Match preview
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Following an impressive First Phase of the season, where they finished second and just one point behind River Plate, Argentinos Juniors have struggled to follow up in this phase, currently holding a record of six wins, five draws and 10 losses.
Over the weekend, El Bicho suffered a 2-1 loss away to Defensa y Justicia, which extended their current winless streak in the league to three matches, following a 1-1 draw against Velez Sarsfield and a 2-1 loss to Platense.
After a five-match winless run in August, the club opted to part ways with Pablo Guede, with Cristian Zermatten taking temporary charge for the last 10 games, a period during which he has managed just two wins, four draws and four losses.
The major issue for Argentinos Juniors of late has been their lack of attacking output, having only netted 17 goals in 21 Second Phase games, while in the First Phase, they scored 25 in 14 matches.
Still, the hosts will be fairly confident in their chances of ending their winless run here, having beaten this opponent fairly comfortably in the reverse fixture 4-2 back in February at this venue.
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Meanwhile, Banfield have also experienced a significant drop-off this season, currently only a single point above the bottom three, while last term, they ended the Second Phase inside the top three.
El Taladro came from a goal down to salvage a point at home to Belgrano last week, and with that result, they have now won only one of their last six matches, while drawing two and losing three of the remaining five games in that time.
In contrast to their upcoming opponents, Gustavo Munua's side have scored in each of their last nine league games, but their issue has been at the other end of the pitch, where they have already shipped 27 goals which is the third-most in the division.
Banfield have struggled on the road this season, currently winless in their last three league matches (W0 D1 L2), while they have only won two games in their last 11 dating back to mid-May.
Team News
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Argentinos Juniors are likely to be without at least four players for this match, starting with long-term absentee Luciano Sanchez, who is still on the road to recovery from a serious knee injury.
Juan Cardozo (knee) and Erik Godoy (back) have missed seven and six games respectively and are out for the foreseeable future, while Alan Rodriguez is flagged as a doubt owing to a sprained knee.
Banfield, meanwhile, have a fairly lengthy injury list which includes Lautaro Gomez and Damian Diaz, both of whom suffered broken ankles and are only expected to return next year.
Juan Alvarez (knee), Mateo Perez (illness) and Alejandro Cabrera (ACL) are out until after the upcoming international break, while Lucas Palavecino's season is over owing to a cruciate ligament tear.
Argentinos Juniors possible starting lineup:
Rodriguez; Coronel, Galvan, Palacio, Vega; Mac Allister, Ferreira, Oroz; Viveros, Romero, Herrera
Banfield possible starting lineup:
Sanguinetti; Di Luciano, Maldonado, Hernandez, De Ritis; Canete, Nunez; Galvan, Rodriguez, Obando; Sepulveda
We say: Argentinos Juniors 2-1 Banfield
While Argentinos Juniors have been a long way from their best in the Second Phase of the season, they are a very difficult side to overcome on their home patch, unbeaten in their last seven.
Banfield, on the other hand, are winless in their last three on the road and have won only two of their last 10, thus, we are going for the hosts to edge the result in this one.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Devesh Jaganath
