Boca continues to suffer every time it has to play for the Professional League Cup in front of its fans, since it still could not win in 2022 at the Bombonera for this contest, and this was repeated tonight in the match for the tenth date of the Zone 2 against Lanús, last in the group positions, with whom they ended up drawing 1-1.
Carlos Zambrano, Nicolás Figal, Gabriel Aranda and Carlos Izquierdoz are injured and Marcos Rojo is suspended by the Libertadores. They were joined today, also injured, by Gastón Ávila, who had to retire before half an hour into the first half.
That’s why coach Sebastián Battaglia, Given the bad absences he has as central markers, he had to improvise with Luis Advíncula as central markerentering Marcelo Weingandt to occupy the right side.
By then the game was already 1-1 due to José Sand’s recent goal (the 301st of his career), who at exactly 41 years and nine months (he will turn 42 on July 17) became the oldest player in the history in scoring a goal in the Bombonera. “With this I scored 50 against the big teams in Argentina”, He confessed at the end of the meeting.
That aforementioned motivation of those led by Jorge Almirón also had to do with the way in which the “maroon” equalizing goal was given, since it had been annulled by referee Facundo Tello at the request of assistant referee Maximiliano Castelli, due to an alleged position advance of Brian Aguirre in the previous play, but then the VAR review ended up validating the conquest of “Pepe” from Corrientes.
The VAR would once again be important at the end of the match, when a shot by Colombian Frank Fabra hit the right elbow of the admitted Ángel González inside the visiting area, but from Ezeiza’s affiliated venue they did not consider that action as a penalty for ” xeneize”.
Sebastián Villa’s goal, much applauded by the Boca fans, just five minutes into the game, after a lucky shot from outside the area that deflected into Matías Pérez, seemed to set the night for the locals against the last of the Zone 2, to which they take 10 points in the same number of dates.
And this also allowed those led by Sebastián Battaglia to stretch to five points the difference with the fifth in the standings, Colón, with whom he is fighting hand in hand for the fourth and last place among those classified for the quarterfinals of this contest. who only has 12 left in play.
But that goal seemed to have an inverse effect for Boca, because impelled by the disadvantage, he began to handle the ball to Boca until he achieved the aforementioned equality, and he was only able to resume the pulse of the game in the final quarter of an hour of the first stage.
Later, already in the complement, Battaglia made a fundamental adjustment in the middle of the field to prevent the visit from controlling the ball in that area, and although he did not abandon the 4-3-3 with which he had already gone out to play against Always Ready, from Bolivia, for the Copa Libertadores, did take out an offensive element like the Paraguayan Óscar Romero to have someone with a brand like the Colombian Jorman Campuzano enter in his place.
With that, half of the field was balanced and Boca, winning that area and drilling on the sides with the aforementioned Villa and the again figure of the field, Exequiel Zeballos, had some risky actions to take the victory, although in this occasion collided with a good night goalkeeper Fernando Monetti.
In this way the “curse” that haunts Boca in this year in which it has not yet won any match for the local tournament was extended one more date (the fifth in a row), while that evil of absences mentioned today added Ávila in an area as sensitive as the central rear.
Although in other sectors of the court the marginalized (for different reasons) must be added Agustín Almendra, Cristian Pavón and Eduardo Salvio (he was present at the stadium). And another who “was absent without notice”, although he was on the field, was the scorer Darío Benedetto, who seems to perform better in the Libertadores than in the League Cup.
For next Wednesday against Godoy Cruz in Mendoza, for the eleventh date, Battaglia plans to put on the field a team with all the starters like this Sunday, to rotate only on Saturday, for the twelfth, at home against Central Córdoba, from Santiago del Estero, thinking of course about the commitment on Tuesday 26 in Brazil against Corinthians, for the Copa Libertadores.
For Lanús, who also proposed a 4-3-3 in the Bombonera, well in the style of his coach, Almirón, his sights are set on the Copa Sudamericana, since as was said, in the native tournament he has no chance of doing anything little while.
