Racing vs Sportivo Luqueño for the Copa Sudamericana: time, formations and TV

With the calculator in his hand, while he does the math to see what he needs to qualify for the quarterfinals of the Professional League Cup, racing will begin its participation in the Copa Sudamericana today by facing Sportivo Luqueño within the framework of the first date of Group H of the contest.

The match will be played in the stadium Defenders of the Chaco of Paraguay, from 9:00 p.m. and will be refereed by Uruguayan Gustavo Tejera while Antonio García will be on the VAR.

Gustavo Costas’ “Academy” comes from beating Central Córdoba 3-1, last Saturday in Santiago del Estero, for the twelfth round of Group B of the League Cup, where they are sixth in the group.

With Adrián Martínez in a state of grace, the team of the former coach of the Bolivian national team returned to victory in the tournament after five games and was two points away from the Playoff zone, waiting for Boca to fall in its pending match with Estudiantes de La Plata since a Boca victory would bring the distance with fourth place to four.

For this match against “Auriazul”, the technical director plans to make two changes with respect to the victory against “Ferroviario”: in defense, Tobías Rubio and Leonardo Sigali will come in for Nazareno Colombo and Marco Di Cesare, respectively.

With these modifications, the former Barcelona from Ecuador will make a change in scheme and will go from 3-4-1-2 to 4-3-3, making Facundo Mura move back towards the defensive line.

Background

Since the title in the 2014 Transition Tournament, the Avellaneda team competed every year in the different tournaments organized by Conmebol but was never able to hit the mark and fight until the final stages. The last time they managed to lift the trophy was in the 1988 South American Super Cup, when Gustavo Costastoday the team’s coach, was still a player in the club.

Since 1988, where he won the South American Super Cup and the Interamerican Super Cup (this last one unofficial), Racing played 28 international tournaments, of different importance and difficulty, and only once was it able to reach a final, which it lost to Cruzeiro in the 1992 Super Cup. The Academy, which had already left behind the relegation of 1983, and which once again went through a black page with bankruptcy and the management, with fights for relegation, became competitive again in the last ten years, but only at the local level.

The South American Cup It had its first edition in 2002, with the participation of racingwhich eliminated River in the round of 16 but fell in the quarterfinals against San Lorenzo, who would later become the champion. His next participation came only ten years later. In 2012 and 2013 he was left out in the first round, against Colón and Lanúsrespectively.

In 2017, they returned to compete in the competition and, after eliminating Rionegro Águilas and Independiente Medellín, they lost to Libertad of Paraguay in the quarterfinals, one step away from facing Independent in semis. However, his last two were resounding failures: in 2019, Eduardo Coudet decided to put substitutes because he was fighting the Super League and was eliminated in the first round on penalties against Corinthians in the Cilindro.

In 2022, with the new group stage format, Fernando Gago’s Racing It started with two victories against River of Uruguay and Cuiabá, lost as a visitor to Melgarbut recovered with two victories against the Brazilians and the Peruvians. He reached the last date with the chance to qualify for the second round only with a draw against the Uruguayans in the Cilindrobut it was an incredible 1-0 defeat and he was left out.

Sportivo Luqueño, comes from beating Sportivo Trinidense 1-0 on the eleventh date of the Apertura Tournament of the First Division of Paraguay, where they are the guard. The team is having a good campaign in which it is second with 18 points, four behind the leader Libertad, which is still undefeated in the competition.

For this match against Racing, coach Julio César Cáceres plans to repeat the same team that defeated “Triki” at the Martín Torres stadium.

Probable formations

Sportivo Luqueño: Alfredo Aguilar; Rodi Ferreira, Alexis Villalba, Pablo Aguilar, Mathías Suárez; Rubén Darío Ríos, Jorge Mendoza, Lautaro Comas, Nicolás Maná; Alex Álvarez and Marcelo Ferreira. DT: Julio César Cáceres.

Racing: Gabriel Arias Tobías Rubio, Leonardo Sigali, Agustín García Basso, Facundo Mura; Santiago Solari, Santiago Sosa, Agustín Almendra; Juan Fernando Quintero; Adrián Martínez and Maximiliano Salas. DT: Gustavo Costas.

Stadium: Defenders of the Chaco, Asunción, Paraguay.

Referee: Gustavo Tejera (Uruguay).

VAR: Antonio García (Uruguay).

Start time: twenty-one

TV: ESPN