River Plate will look to make it two wins from two in Group E in the Club World Cup as they take on Mexican side CF Monterrey at the Rose Bowl in the early hours of Sunday morning.
River Plate made a winning start to their Club World Cup campaign on Tuesday night, as they defeated J1 League side Urawa Diamonds 3-1 in Seattle on an evening where our man Kevin delivered a nice 2/1 winner.
Goals from Facundo Colidio and Sebastian Driussi gave Enzo Francescoli’s men a two-goal lead at the beginning of the second half before substitute Maximiliano Meza regained their two-goal advantage in the 73rd minute and helped secure a well-deserved victory.
Monterrey opened up their Club World Cup campaign with a 1-1 draw with the beaten Champions League finalists Inter in California in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Sergio Ramos gave the Mexicans the lead after just 25 minutes with a trademark header from a corner before The Nerazurri equalised just before halftime through skipper Lautaro Martinez.
Despite both sides producing plenty of chances in the second half, that would be the way the match finished.
How the bookies view it: River favourites
The bookmakers fancy River Plate to make it two wins from two in Group E, with BoyleSports making them 21/20 favourites.
The same firm has a Monterrey success at 12/5, whilst the draw is 9/4.
Head to head: First competitive clash
Whilst this is the first competitive meeting between these two sides, they have met in friendlies in both 2023 and 2024, with River Plate boasting a W1-D1-L0 record.
Players to watch: Driussi to deliver?
Sebastian Driussi has scored in seven of his past 10 appearances for the record Argentinian champions – including the second against Urawa Diamonds in their group opener – and the ex-Austin FC frontman is an appealing 7/4 at BoyleSports to bag again.
Sergio Ramos is a big game player, and the ex-Real Madrid man has actually scored in five of his last nine appearances for Monterrey – including the opener against Inter in their opening group match – and is a massive 6/1 at BoyleSports to score again.
Predicted line-ups
Maximiliano Meza came on off the bench at the start of the second half and sealed his side the victory against their Japanese opponents, and will be pushing for a start here.
Monterrey appear to have picked up no new injury concerns in their draw with Inter, with the likes of Sergio Ramos, Sergio Canales and Lucas Ocampos likely to be in from the start once again.
River Plate: Armani, Montiel, Pezzella, Quarta, Acuna, Fernandez, Meza, Castano, Mastauntuono, Colidio, Driussi
Monterrey: Andrada, Medina, Ramos, Guzman, Chavez, Torres, Rodriguez, Canales, Arteaga, Ocampos, Berterame
Anything else catch the eye?
Both clubs will be eyeing the three points in this clash to boost their chances of reaching the last-16, and given the amount of high-scoring clashes both have been involved in in recent months, I’m happy to back goals here.
River Plate’s previous 11 matches in all competitions have averaged an eye-catching 3.73 goals per game, with Both Teams to Score banking in nine (82%) of them, whilst eight of their last 10 have seen a minimum of three strikes.
Monterrey’s matches are generally good for goals, with their past 31 in all competitions averaging 3.32 goals per game, with 24 (77%) of them seeing goals at both ends, whilst 19 (61%) have seen Over 2.5 Goals land.
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