Making history

Arsenal de Sarandí achieved the biggest result in the club’s history on Wednesday night, a 1-1 home draw with Brazilian side Goiás seeing them through to the quarter-final of the Copa Sudamericana in their first ever appearance in South American competition.

Having won the first leg 3-2 away from home last week, Arsenal knew a draw would be enough, and when Alejandro Gómez gave them the lead after 36 minutes in El Viaducto – where they’ve lost once in the last twelve months – it looked like job done. Goiás forward Harison equalised on the stroke of half-time to complicate matters, but after the interval the visitors never really looked like grabbing the two goals they needed to go through, and El Arse were left celebrating. In the quarter-final, they’ll play the winners of the Chivas vs. D.C. United tie.

Lanús and Boca still have their ties to come tonight, against Vasco and Sao Paulo respectively (both away). The kick-off time combined with the fact that I’m getting a train to Valencia tomorrow morning means I won’t be able to stay up and wait for the scores to come in, but rest assured you’ll be able to see the goals from all tonight’s fixtures (including Arsenal’s) on this site by Thursday evening European time.

And finally, Catalunya continues to salivate over Lionel Messi, who today took his tally to five goals in his last three matches by scoring twice in Barcelona’s 4-1 demolition of Real Zaragoza. Messi scored in the 5th and15th minutes. Gabriel Milito also appeared for the hosts, whilst the visitors numbered Pablo Aimar, Roberto Ayala and Gabi’s brother Diego in their ranks. In Italy, Inter beat Sampdoria 3-0 with Javier Zanetti, Walter Samuel, Esteban Cambiasso and Hernán Crespo on the pitch.

Domestically, meanwhile, the first questioning articles are being penned wondering whether Germán Denis’s spectacular start to the Apertura, where he might be about to tear up Martín Palermo’s short tournament goalscoring record, should result in a call-up to the selección. Messi’s the only Argentine forward coming close to matching Denis’s goalscoring exploits at the moment, so who knows?