Banfield reached the round of 16 of the Argentine Cup by beating Union, from Santa Fe, 2-1, who started by winning the round of 16 match. played at the Estadio Único, in San Nicolás.
The classification placed the “Drill” in the next instance of the contest that throws a qualifier to the Copa Libertadores 2023 and in it it will cross Gimnasia y Esgrima, from Jujuy.
The match played in the city of San Nicolás in Buenos Aires had a magnificent public setting (the stadium has capacity for 23,000 spectators), since both Banfield and Unión fans were massively present, with a profusion of flags from large and small proportions as well with percussion elements.
Unión came from beating Banfield 3-2 last weekend for the seventh date of the Professional League championship and this time the story was reversed, leaving the Santa Fe residents empty-handed in just over a week, since they came of being eliminated in the round of 16 of the Copa Sudamericana at the hands of Nacional, from Uruguay.
The game started at full steam and after a quarter of an hour Unión managed to take the lead through Mauro Luna Diale, who diverted the trajectory to a low center by Colombian Brayan Castrillón that seemed easy to contain for goalkeeper Facundo Cambeses, one of the alternative players that coach Claudio Vivas arranged today.
For his part, the Uruguayan Gustavo Munúa planted a line-up with a majority of starters due to the importance of this competition that continues to grow and brings direct entry to the group stage of the Libertadores as a prize.
And just after 40 minutes of that initial stage, the captain and usually substitute Jesús Dátolo appeared in all his splendor, who at 38 years old has an immaculate left-footed punch and with it he tied the game with a great free kick goal.
And as “a horse that reaches, wants to win”, according to an old turfistic adage, Banfield went out in search of the jackpot in the second half and got it quickly, over 10 minutes, with a great left action by the former Union, from Santa Fe , Maximiliano Cuadra, who put in a precise center from the left for the entry through the other sector of the right back Emanuel Coronel, who placed the second with a header.
This was Coronel’s first goal with the Banfield shirt and he got it by ducking and crossing the header that dislodged the Uruguayan goalkeeper Santiago Mele.
From then until the end, the Banfileños managed the actions and the goalkeeper Cambeses did not have too many troubles, except in the last action of the game, when the entered Imanol Machuca could not connect almost under the goal a center from the left that would have meant equality and the consequent definition by penalties.
But the boy from Unión could not extend his right leg to break the Banfileño goal in injury time and immediately afterwards the referee Lucas Comesaña whistled the final whistle and unleashed the jubilant celebration of albiverde players and fans.
