For the first time in over 15 years, Instituto and Racing Club will face each other in an Argentine Primera Division clash set for Monday at Estadio Presidente Peron.
In their return to the top flight, La Gloria are currently 20th with 21 points despite losing their previous encounter to Rosario Central 4-1, while La Academia are only a point above them in 18th, defeating Banfield 2-0 last Saturday.
Match preview
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For a club that had not been in the top tier of Argentine football since the 2005-06 campaign, Instituto have certainly held their own against teams far more experienced than them, going pointless in just one of their opening eight league fixtures this season.
Lately, however, it appears as though that inexperience is starting to show, as they have lost seven of their previous 11 domestic affairs and have failed to score on seven occasions.
That cost Lucas Bovaglio his job, and it will now be up to Diego Dabove to steer them back on course, having himself just recently departed from Huracan.
The ex-goalkeeper needs to get his outfield players to improve their defensive positioning when out of possession, because the Instituto penalty area was like a shooting gallery last Saturday, with Rosario firing 19 shots, 12 on target.
Albirrojo have claimed four points domestically in its last two league fixtures, both of which were clean sheets, having posted five over the 2023 campaign.
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A rough eight-match stretch without a win domestically ended for Racing Club last weekend as they failed to concede in a domestic outing for the first time since mid-March.
That was also the first time since early April that they had drawn first blood in this competition, having gone unbeaten domestically in 2023 when scoring the opener and dropping points in only one of those situations (2-2 draw versus Tigre).
Fernando Gago has a lot to live up to given his illustrious playing career at Boca Juniors and Real Madrid, plus guiding Racing to the Supercopa Internacional in 2022, and so far, they are a far cry from the squad that were runners-up to Boca Juniors in the league a season ago.
This is the first time since Gago took over last year that they have struggled this badly, and they have been at their worst away from home, without a win in five successive domestic contests, conceding seven times in their last three such outings.
They have only ever lost one road fixture to Instituto in this competition, though they did suffer a defeat in both their home and away matches from the 2005-06 campaign.
Team News
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We saw two changes made to the Instituto opening lineup for the Rosario Central match when compared to the 11 that began versus Estudiantes, as Fernando Alarcon and Brahian Cuello replaced Ezequiel Parniasari and Franco Watson.
Adrian Martinez had the only goal from the penalty spot as Instituto lost to Rosario, while he notched a brace on Wednesday, allowing them to defeat Deportivo Riestra and advance into the second round of the Copa Argentina.
In their last Primera Division home fixture this year, Manuel Roffo stopped all three shots that he faced as his side drew 0-0 with Estudiantes.
Racing were without Emiliano Vecchio against Banfield because of an ACL strain, while Maximiliano Romero was also sidelined due to a muscle injury.
In that contest, Gabriel Hauche and Gabriel Rojas each found the back of the net, while Gabriel Arias made three stops for the clean sheet.
Matias Rojas had the only strike for El Primer Grande when they were beaten 2-1 on the road at Flamengo earlier this week in the Copa Libertadores.
Instituto possible starting lineup:
Roffo; Cerato, Mosevich, Alarcon, Corda; Linares; Graciani, Lodico, Garrido; Rodriguez, Martinez
Racing Club possible starting lineup:
Arias; Mura, Sigali, Piovi, G. Rojas; Gomez, Moreno, Oroz; Reniero, Guerrero, Hauche
We say: Instituto 1-0 Racing Club
Home field has been good to Instituto so far this year, and Racing do not look comfortable defending away from home, so we expect their hesitancy will cost them in this one.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
