Vélez eye Copa Libertadores, visit San Martín in Clausura | OneFootball

Considering that on Tuesday they will play the second leg against Racing, Vélez will visit San Martín de San Juan this Friday with an alternative lineup.

San Martín de San Juan and Vélez will face off at the Hilario Sánchez Rodríguez stadium starting at 7:15 PM, for the ninth round of Group B in the 2025 Liga Profesional Clausura Tournament. El Santo and El Fortín arrive with different needs: Pipi Romagnoli’s team is still hopeful of staying in the division, while El Fortín wants to secure their spot in the qualification places for the next phase.

How San Martín (SJ) and Vélez arrive at the Clausura Tournament clash

San Martín depends on a miracle to stay in the division. El Santo is fighting, along with Aldosivi, for the last spot in both the annual table and the relegation averages. They need to take all three points to escape the relegation battle and hope their direct rivals, the Mar del Plata Shark and Talleres, drop points along the way. They are coming off a 0-0 draw with Belgrano in Barrio Alberdi, and have collected 5 out of the last 15 points. Horacio Tijanovich will be out after a serious injury in Córdoba.

On the other hand, Vélez will arrive in San Juan with a bitter taste: they lost 1-0 to Racing in Liniers in the first leg of the Copa Libertadores quarterfinals, in a match where they played with 10 men from the 30th minute of the first half after Lisandro Magallán was sent off.

El Fortín is third in Zone B and a win would give them the comfort of having one foot in the next league phase. The defeat against La Academia ended a positive streak of 7 unbeaten matches; in their last Clausura match, they drew 0-0 with Huracán in Parque Patricios.

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