Wednesday, June 25

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Sports Mole previews Saturday's Copa Diego Maradona clash between Belgrano and Defensores de Belgrano, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.

With a place in the last 16 of the Copa Argentina on the line, Defensores de Belgrano travel to Estadio Parque La Pedrera on Friday for a date with Belgrano.

In the previous round, El Celeste managed to get past Real Pilar 3-1, while Defensores upset Barracas Central 2-0 in their opening match of this tournament in April.

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Match preview

A strong opening half in their round of 64 clash in mid-April enabled Belgrano to avoid a similar fate from a year ago when they were ousted in the opening stage of this competition by CA Mitre.

Belgrano were up 3-0 at the half versus Real Pilar and with a win on Friday, the club from Cordoba can book a place in the last 16 of the Copa Argentina for the third time in their previous four seasons, having not lost a second-round affair in this tournament since 2019 (1-0 to Real Pilar).

Since their convincing opening round triumph in April, however, this side have gone winless in their last three competitive fixtures, scoring a combined two goals over that stretch.

Ricardo Zielinski’s men have failed to win their previous two matches played in the Argentine Primera Division despite netting the opening goal on both of those occasions.

Their 13 goals scored domestically this year are the second-fewest in Group A of the opening top flight phase, though they have a 100% record in 2025 when netting multiple times.

Friday will mark their second meeting against Defensores, with El Pirata winning the previous clash against them on penalties in the second round of this competition in 2017.

The giant killers in the opening round of this tournament will hope they can do it yet again Friday, as Defensores made the most of their opportunities in their previous Copa Argentina clash.

Another upset on Friday would see the Nunez-based club make the round of 16 of this competition for the first time since 2016 when they defeated Atletico Tucuman 1-0 in the round of 32.

Coming into this encounter the Primera Nacional side are winless in their last six matches played across all competitions, scoring a goal or fewer in each of those contests.

Carlos Mayor’s team currently find themselves sitting ninth domestically in their Group B table with 26 points, netting the joint fourth-fewest goals in that group thus far.

Since the beginning of May, this team have only scored one goal in the opening 45 minutes of a match, squandering an early 1-0 lead domestically versus Almirante Browns and playing to a 1-1 draw.

Three of their last four competitive triumphs occurred when they were the visiting team, the last one being on matchday 12 of the Primera Nacional campaign against Colon (1-0).

Belgrano Copa Argentina form:

Belgrano form (all competitions):

Defensores de Belgrano Copa Argentina form:

Defensores de Belgrano form (all competitions):

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Team News

Belgrano could be without Matias Fernandez for this clash as he is dealing with a sore foot, Jeremias Lucco is recovering from a torn muscle and Juan Martin Velazquez suffered an Achilles tendon rupture in February, with both players questionable for this clash.

Nicolas Fernandez netted a brace in their opening round Copa Argentina triumph with the other Belgrano goal coming courtesy of Gabriel Compagnucci, while the only one they conceded was an own goal by Facundo Quignon.

On the Defensores side, they will be missing Fabian Dauwalder for this match after he received two cautions in their opening-round triumph versus Barracas Central.

An own goal courtesy of Facundo Bruera proved to be the match-winner in that clash with Enzo Gonzalez adding an insurance marker late in the second half and Alejandro Medina collecting a clean sheet.

Belgrano possible starting lineup:

Vicentini; Compagnucci, Troilo, Leguizamon, Grillo; Mavilla, Longo, Quignon; Zelarayan; N. Fernandez, Jara

Defensores de Belgrano possible starting lineup:

Medina; Gamarra, Rodriguez, Massaccesi, Segovia, Correa; Benitez, Gutierrez, Mendoza; Aguirre, Pons

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We say: Belgrano 2-0 Defensores de Belgrano

 

While Defensores have been well-organised defensively, we believe their luck will run out against a side with far more big-game experience, who are more than capable of holding out defensively against some of the top teams in Argentina.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

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