Preview: Racing Club vs. Sporting Cristal - prediction, team news, lineups

Racing Club head into Thursday's encounter with Sporting Cristal looking to record their first win in Group E of the Copa Libertadores.

While the Argentine outfit opened up with a draw against Rentistas, their Peruvian opponents were comfortably defeated by Sao Paulo.

Match preview

Having reached the quarter-finals of last year's competition, Racing Club would have been hoping for a strong start to this campaign.

However, Juan Antonio Pizzi's team were fortunate to claim a share of the spoils versus Rentistas, requiring a late equaliser after they had earlier gone down to 10 men.

Pizzi will arguably see it as a point gained given the circumstances, but the recently-appointed boss knows that his side need to improve over the coming weeks.

Despite putting together a four-match winning streak earlier in the season, Racing Club have now prevailed in just two of their last seven fixtures over 90 minutes.

They also had to come from behind to defeat Colon by a 2-1 scoreline at the weekend, with Juan Jose Caceres again scoring an important goal in the closing stages.

Sporting Cristal were eliminated before the group stages in 2020, meaning that progression from Group E would be regarded as a bonus.

Nevertheless, the Peruvian team will not want to bow out with a whimper, something which could realistically happen after losing out 3-0 at home to Sao Paulo.

Roberto Mosquera's squad have been outstanding on the domestic front, recording wins in their opening five league games and conceding just one goal in the process.

However, they were made to fight for all three points by lowly Universitario at the weekend, with an early penalty from Alejandro Hohberg making the difference.

Team News

Racing Club will be without defender Leonardo Sigali, who was dismissed during the latter stages of the opening fixture.

Lucas Orban could be drafted into a three-man backline, while Maximiliano Lovera is in contention for a start in attack.

Mosquera will inevitably make changes to the Cristal side which succumbed tamely against Sao Paulo.

Hohberg could get an opportunity on the left-hand side of midfield, with Jesus Pretell an alternative to Martin Tavara in the centre of the pitch.

Racing Club possible starting lineup:
Arias; Orban, Dominguez, Novillo; Caceres, Miranda, Gutierrez, Rojas, Mena; Lovera, Chancalay

Sporting Cristal possible starting lineup:
Duarte; Madrid, Gonzalez, Merlo, Loyola; Calcaterra, Tavara, Gonzales; Avila, Riquelme, Hohberg

We say: Racing Club 2-0 Sporting Cristal

With Cristal likely to emerge as the worst performing team in the group, Sporting need to take full advantage.

While their form has not been the best in recent weeks, we still expect the Argentine outfit to record a comfortable win on Thursday.