Saturday’s matches saw Newell’s Old Boys return to the top of the table with a 2-1 home win over River Plate in which, not for the first time, Diego Buonanotte gave the visitors their only joy of the match. A little later, Atlético Tucumán ended a run of eight matches without a win, thrashing Tigre 4-2 at the Monumental José Fierro. Oh, and Racing lost again, 3-1 away in Mendoza this time.
In Rosario, River’s institutional and on-pitch crisis deepened further after just four minutes of the match in El Coloso Del Parque. That was the time elapsed when Joaquín Boghossian, the 22-year-old Uruguayan enjoying something of a purple patch at present up front for Newell’s, chested down a lofted pass and flicked it past Daniel Vega in the River goal. Buonanotte gave the Millonarios hope in the 63rd minute with a low finish across goal, but Boghossian struck again, rising from a corner, to win the game for Newell’s with eleven minutes left.
Tigre arrived in Tucumán bottom of the Apertura and still desperately hoping for only a second win of the campaign. To start with it looked like they might manage it as well, Matías Giménez putting them ahead after only four minutes. Juan Pablo Pereyra equalised in the 17th minute but two minutes after the break, Carlos Luna put the visitors into the lead again with a spectacular turn and finish at the end of a rapid team move.
Thereafter it was all downhill for Tigre. An own goal from Jonathan Blanco as Emanuel Gigliotti lurked made it 2-2 in the 55th minute, Pereyra got his second just two minutes after that with a neat chipped finish, and Gigliotti himself put the icing on the cake with nine minutes remaining with a smart shot from the edge of the box. The win lifts Atlético to 14th in the Primera, and leaves Tigre still rooted to the bottom.
Tigre were in fact three whole points off the bottom in spite of Racing’s earlier 3-1 loss to Godoy Cruz. In Mendoza, La Academia sported a new manager – Claudio Vivas made his debut as boss – but no change in performance levels. They were 2-0 down after just quarter of an hour thanks to goals from Jesús Vera and Federico Higuaín. Indeed, the Avellaneda side couldn’t even get on the scoresheet themselves – their goal in the 56th minute was an own goal from Leandro Sigali. Three minutes into stoppage time, Cristian Chávez ended the rout with a finish as simple as most of the game had been for the home side.
And at the start of play on Saturday, Lanús fell spectacularly to Chacarita Juniors, who pitched up at El Sur and showed the league’s doyens of beautiful football how to do it with a 3-0 win which was their first as visitors this season. Cristian Milla, late in the first half, and Facundo Parra, twice in the second, got the goals.
Friday night’s matches saw Argentinos draw 1-1 with Central (goals from Emilio Zelaya for the visitors and Nicolás Pavlovich for the hosts), and Independiente beat Gimnasia La Plata 1-0 to record their second win in the new Doble Visera. Eduardo Tuzzio got the goal in that one, in the 86th minute.
Hasta El Gol Siempre 