Boca Juniors climbed to the top of the Primera A table – overnight at least – on goal difference ahead of Lanús, beating Racing 3-0 in El Cilindro in the first clásico of the season. Boca needed to win to stay in the hunt for the title, and did so emphatically with a team that was tweaked twice in the week leading up to the match.
At first it had seemed Leandro Gracián was set to start, with one eye on the World Club Championship next month, but he ended up on the bench as Miguel Russo fielded Ever Banega and Sebastián Battaglia as a more combative pairing in central midfield, with Banega’s passing range and Neri Cardozo on the left providing the creativity. In the first half, Boca were vastly superior but couldn’t find a finishing touch for a number of chances that fell their way, and when Racing had chances – two in particular for Claudio López – Mauricio Caranta between Boca’s sticks was equal to them.
It was Cardozo who opened the scoring moments into the second half, in spectacular style, letting fly from 30 yards with a thundering right-footer which flew in at the angle of post and crossbar, not dissimilar to a certain left-footed effort from 40 years ago in Racing’s own past. After that, Racing went to pieces. Three minutes later Rodrigo Palacio could have put Boca into an unassailable lead, but scuffed it at the goalkeeper. Ten minutes later, he made no such mistake, exchanging passes with Banega and doubling Boca’s lead.
Racing, who’ve now reached five matches without a win, were half-hearted in their attempts for a consolation and Boca could afford the luxury of substituting both Caranta and Cardozo, both of whom were feeling slightly tight, because it was clear the match wasn’t in any great danger of going back the way of the hosts. And three minutes into stoppage time, Adrián Bastía brought down Fabián Vargas in the area, and Martín Palermo broke with his usual habits to score a penalty. 3-0, and Boca’s championship challenge is very much alive. Racing, however, aren’t sailing quite so high…
On Friday night, Arsenal beat Central 1-0 at home, and earlier today Olimpo surprised Gimnasia de Jujuy, beating them 3-0 in Jujuy. The other match to have been played so far that affects the top end of the table came last night, when Banfield ran out 1-0 winners away to San Martín. Darío Cvitanich scored the goal after 59 minutes, and Banfield climb to fifth, joining Independiente and Tigre on 25 points. Boca and Lanús both have 27, but with tomorrow’s games still to come, it’s anyone’s guess who’ll be top by the end of the round.
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Gracian has really struggled over the past few matches. No surprise Russo went in another direction. Whether or not a enganche by commitee is the ultimate answer is another question. Looked good yesterday, but………