Boca Juniors, which stopped its free fall with the agonizing victory it achieved during the week against Pereira, from Colombia, for the Copa Libertadores, will seek to recover tomorrow from three consecutive defeats in the Professional League in Rosario, against the toned Central, in a match valid for the date 13.
Boca, the current Argentine soccer champion, added just 14 points in the domestic tournament, in which he lost six games, half of those he played, and was so far behind the leader River (30), that it is presumed that it will be impossible to discount such an advantage.
In Boca, DT Jorge Almirón, who lost the two games he led in the Professional League, with San Lorenzo and Estudiantes, 1-0 in both cases, and just achieved his first success last Tuesday in the Cup against Pereira (2 -1), planned to preserve some starting players (Nicolás Figal, Sebastián Villa and Guillermo “Pol” Fernández), but finally gave up on that initial idea and will put the best available in Rosario.
It is that Boca, after the match against Central, will have a full week of training without a Cup in the middle and then will assume a key follow-up: Racing in La Bombonera next Saturday, in the middle the strongest rival of Group F of the Libertadores: Colo Colo, in Santiago, and finally in Superclásico in Núñez with River.
This series of matches worries Almirón, who rehearsed in the last two practices with a substitute formation, but finally considered that the best thing for the team to adapt to his proposal is for it to have continuity and that is why he will use all his power in Rosario, with exceptions for the injured.
So Boca will have Sergio “Chiquito” Romero in the goal, a defense with the Peruvian Luis Advíncula, Figal, the Juninense Nicolás Valentini, who has a lot of continuity with Almirón, and the great appearance of the club, the left side Valentín Barco, who will surely take over the position due to the injury of Colombian Frank Fabra.
The midfield will be with “Pol” Fernández, Alan Varela (he has four yellow cards and if he receives one more he will miss the classic with Racing next Saturday at La Bombonera), Martín Payero and the Paraguayan Oscar Romero, thus Boca will leave the tactical system 4 -3-3 that he had used in his last presentations and will change to a 4-4-2.
Up front will be the Uruguayan Miguel Merentiel and the Colombian Villa, the most dominating player in Boca.
In relation to the match against the Colombians, there will be two changes, since Payero will replace Norberto Briasco, and the Uruguayan Merentiel will replace Darío “Pipa” Benedetto, torn.
With a more crowded midfield, Boca will try to dominate a strong area of Central, and try to reach the sides to feed Merentiel, a goal scorer from the area who sometimes has to be too late to make contact with the ball.
Central comes from a draw with Atlético Tucumán (2-2), in a game in which he played poorly in the first half, but which he turned around in the second half and which escaped him in the final, with a goal won by the former player from the Joaquín Pereyra club, favored by a rebound from Juan Cruz Komar, which dislodged goalkeeper Jorge “Fatura” Broun.
The team from Rosario, which plays a strong home team (they drew with Unión and won all the other games), hopes to have offensive midfielder Ignacio Malcorra in the starting lineup, a specialist in set pieces who suffered a blow in Tucumán that made him leave the party and keeps it in doubt.
In the event that Malcorra cannot play, his place will be taken by Luciano Ferreyra.
As for the system, Russo is likely to repeat the line of five defenders – three full-backs and two wing markers added to the midfield – as he did in the last three away games: Huracán, Newell’s Old Boys and Atlético Tucumán.
If Russo maintains the line of five defenders, defender Juan Cruz Komar would continue in the team, but if he decides to use the 4-2-3-1 system, the youthful attacking midfielder Lautaro Giaccone will return.
Central will try to take possession of the three points to get closer to River and stay excited, since of the teams above it is, together with Talleres de Córdoba, one of those that do not participate in Cups and therefore competes only once a week, it is not the case of River and San Lorenzo.
Regarding the history, they met 157 times and Boca is the dominator with 69 victories against 49 for Central, while they tied 39 times.
– Probable formations
Rosario Central: Jorge Broun; Damián Martínez, Juan Cruz Komar or Lautaro Giaccone, Facundo Mallo, Carlos Quintana and Alan Rodríguez; Ignacio Malcorra or Luciano Ferreyra, Walter Montoya, Kevin Ortiz and Jaminton Campaz; Alejo Veliz DT: Miguel Angel Russo.
Boca Juniors: Sergio “Chiquito” Romero; Luis Advíncula, Nicolás Figal, Nicolás Valentini and Valentín Barco; Guillermo “Pol” Fernández, Alan Varela, Martín Payero and Oscar Romero; Miguel Merentiel and Sebastian Villa. DT: Jorge Almirón.
Referee: Ariel Penel.
VAR: Diego Abal.
Court: Gigante de Arroyito, from Central.
Starting time: 15:30.
TV: TNT Sports.
Source: Ambito
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