River visit Vélez needing a win to keep their Libertadores dream alive | OneFootball

The match between El Millonario and El Fortín will take place at the José Amalfitani Stadium starting at 5:00 p.m.

River Plate will visit Vélez Sarsfield this Sunday in a key match for the final round of Group B of the Torneo Clausura of the Professional League, where Marcelo Gallardo's team is playing for much of its immediate future. The match will kick off at 5:00 p.m. at the José Amalfitani stadium, with Leandro Rey Hilfer as the referee and Adrián Franklin overseeing the VAR. The broadcast will be on TNT Sports.

El Millonario comes into the game shaken after a 2-0 defeat to Boca in the interzonal Superclásico, where they gave a very poor performance and did not register any shots on target. That setback deepened the football crisis and left the Núñez club with serious complications in their quest to secure a spot in the next Copa Libertadores.

The road to the 2026 Libertadores is conditional: they need to beat El Fortín and hope for a defeat by Argentinos Juniors against Estudiantes, which would at least allow them to enter the preliminary round. Additionally, if Lanús wins the Copa Sudamericana, it will free up a spot that would place River directly in the group stage.

Gallardo will face this match with several absences: Kevin Castaño, who is away with his national team for the FIFA date, and the suspended Lucas Martínez Quarta and Marcos Acuña, both out due to yellow card accumulation. Added to them is the absence of Maximiliano Meza, who suffered an avulsion in the patellar tendon and will be out for three months.

Given this scenario, Enzo Pérez will return to the midfield in place of Martínez Quarta, while Fabricio Bustos and Milton Casco will take the spots of Gonzalo Montiel and Acuña. Meanwhile, Giuliano Galoppo and Santiago Lencina are competing for the spot left by Meza. The other new development will be the inclusion of Colombian Juan Fernando Quintero, who will replace his compatriot Castaño, change the formation, and position himself behind the forwards Sebastián Driussi and Maximiliano Salas.

On the home side, Guillermo Barros Schelotto's team is coming off a 2-0 loss to Gimnasia La Plata and, despite having secured a place in the round of 16, could still lose home advantage if they fall to River and other results combine.

Probable lineups

Vélez Sarsfield: Tomás Marchiori; Jano Gordon, Thiago Silveiro, Aaron Quiros, Elías Gómez; Rodrigo Aliendro, Agustín Bouzat, Maher Carrizo, Francisco Pizzini, Bruno Valdes; Dilan Godoy. Manager: Guillermo Barros Schelotto.

River faces a decisive match. The obligation is to win to avoid depending on others and to keep alive a sporting year that, after the blow in the Superclásico, is more compromised than ever.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.