Marcelo Gallardo would field a mostly starting lineup for River Plate against Banfield, for the fourth matchday of the Professional League Cup, despite having to play the first leg of the CONMEBOL Libertadores Round of 16 four days later.
On Wednesday afternoon, the River Plate coach included Rafael Borre and Ignacio Fernandez among the called-up players, both recovered from Covid and a muscle tear, respectively, and could give them some minutes this Friday, since both have had several days of inactivity. What Gallardo still needs to decide is whether to start them or have them on the bench.
And contrary to what was believed, Gallardo will try to field the best team available to visit Banfield, in Group 3 of the local championship.
According to information from Javier Gil Navarro on ESPN F12, the coach would give rest to Franco Armani and Gonzalo Montiel, who returned from the Argentine National Team call-up for the South American qualifiers and both played in the double matchday. The same goes for Chilean player Paulo Diaz.
Nicolas De La Cruz will also not be available, due to the Covid outbreak that occurred in the Uruguayan National Team, and for the moment, he remains sidelined. He arrived in the country on Thursday, will train separately, and will be tested.
The only international player included in the call-up is Paraguayan Robert Rojas, who could even start the match.
Therefore, the possible starting eleven for this Friday could be: Bologna; Casco, Rojas, Pinola, Angileri; Nacho Fernandez, Enzo Perez, Ferreira; Alvarez, Borre, and Suarez.
The other novelty in Gallardo's call-up is the presence of Santiago Simon, a player born in 2002, right midfielder, who has already played for the U-17 national team. This is his first time with the professional squad, just like Tomas Castro had last matchday.
River Plate will visit Banfield this Friday, at 9:30 PM in Florencio Sola Stadium, and on Tuesday, the 24th, they will visit Athetico Paranaense at 7 PM, for the first leg of the CONMEBOL Libertadores Round of 16.
= CALLED-UP PLAYERS:
Enrique Bologna
German Lux
Milton Casco
Fabrizio Angileri
Javier Pinola
Robert Rojas
Enzo Perez
Leonardo Ponzio
Bruno Zuculini
Santiago Sosa
Ignacio Fernandez
Cristian Ferreira
Jorge Carrascal
Tomas Castro
Santiago Simon
Matias Suarez
Julian Alvarez
Lucas Pratto
Rafael Borre
Federico Girotti
Lucas Beltran
Benjamin Rollheiser