Sensini Sticking With The Same Eleven

After speculation at the beginning of the week had Roberto Sensini thinking about taking Gabriel Cichero out of the starting 11 and inserting Ignacio Fideleff word is now that Newell's Old Boys will not be making a single change to a line up that has lost the last three matches they have played (including the Copa Sudamericana loss to LDU Quito.) Cichero himself had this to say about Sunday's match against Boca Jrs: “With Boca we must return to be the Newell's that people know.” Yeah? I would say that should have been said right after the team got knocked out of the Copa, rather than after losing two additional games that should have been win. (OK, beating All Boys away might be a bit too much to say that about, but coming away with a point should have been possible.)

Moving right along, here are the expected line ups for both teams:

Newell's:
Sebastián Peratta
Agustín Alayes, Rolando Schiavi, Gabriel Cichero
Luciano Vella, Diego Mateo, Lucas Bernardi, Marcelo Estigarribia
Mauro Formica
Mauricio Sperdutti, Iván Borghello

Boca:
Javier García
Christian Cellay, Matías Caruzzo, Juan Insaurralde, Clemente Rodríguez
Gary Medel, Cristian Erbes, Matías Giménez
Cristian Chávez
Sergio Araujo, Martín Palermo

Referee: Diego Abal

Newell's are playing at home, check. They are playing a Boca team that is quickly falling apart and have generally not been playing well on the road, check. Juan Román Riquelme is injured and out for the rest of the season, check. Everything seems to point towards a Lepra victory, provided they can get back to playing the way they had been prior to the current losing streak.

And my personal message to Cichero? You better not get caught flatfooted against Palermo. He may be old, but he is still one of the most dangerous strikers playing in Argentina.

Kick off is at 5 PM local time on Sunday, or 3 pm EST here in the USA. That will give me time to watch the game before going over for my weekly Sunday get together with friends. My after match post may be late... unless I can pound it out faster than usual.