Boca qualified this Tuesday night for the semifinals of the Professional League Cup in which they will face Racing, next Saturday in Lanús, after beating Defense and Justice in the Bombonera by 2 to 0, demonstrating a soccer authority that was above the previous claims of those of Florencio Varela for having one day less rest than his rival.
Boca asserted the best soccer texture of its individualities and the greater weight of its shirtin addition to the locality that, however, in the group stage had been quite elusive, since it was only on the last date that they were able to win their first match in the Bombonera against the recently promoted Barracas Central.
Those directed by Sebastián Battaglia were superior in the initial period, when they had a goal chance converted by Guillermo “Pol” Fernández (it would have been the first since his return to Boca) and canceled at the request of the VAR due to a prior foul (elbow) by the assistant, Sebastián Villa, on the face of Nicolás Tripicchio, and the goal of the Colombian was validated over 40 minutes.
That conquest “freed” Boca for the second stage, since the two times that Villa was able to escape from the cage that the other coach Sebastián, Beccacece, had prepared for him, on the right side of his defense, the ball ended up inside the arc of Luis Ezequiel Unsain.
The first time it was not worth it, but the second time it was, when a great clearance from his compatriot Frank Fabra behind Tripicchio’s back and a subsequent dribble to leave him snubbed, allowed the one born in the Colombian town of Bello to next Thursday, May 19 will turn 26, shoot from a closed angle to the near post and open the scoring with the involuntary collaboration of Unsaín, who poorly covered that post.
From that conquest, which occurred just a minute after Beccacece corrected, in Marcelo Bielsa style, the circulation deficit that his team had in the middle of the field, removing Gabriel Hachen before the end of that first half to put in his place another Colombian, midfielder Raúl Loaiza, as was said, Boca was encouraged to fly a little more.
And for that the auriazul team “paid” their rival at the start of the complement “with the same coin”, which simply and plainly applied a greater control of the ball, something for which Alan Varela was fundamental even above “Pol” Fernández, since the 20-year-old boy from Isidro Casanova became the axis of his team without weighing down the commitment.
This forced Beccacece to “move the hornet’s nest” with the income of Gabriel Alanis through left-back Alexis Soto to have greater depth in that sector and Hugo Fernández through an insipid Francisco Pizzini, giving him better game prospects for Florencio Varela’s team.
But on this occasion the one who was “blessed” was his colleague Battaglia, who in that movement of pieces was right immediately when making “his” correction, taking Eduardo Salvio out before half an hour of the complement, who, unlike Villa, was never able to escape from the defensive fence rehearsed by the “Halcón” on the other side of the field, for Juan Ramírez to enter.
And less than five minutes after his entry, the former San Lorenzo received a precise authorization from the Paraguayan Óscar Romero, after a dozen price touches in which Varela was the conductorto become the first “xeneize” midfielder to convert a goal in this 2022 from his lethal right cross.
A goal, the second by Ramírez with the blue and yellow shirt, which not only consolidated this team’s recovery after Battaglia walked the tightrope with crooked feet, but fundamentally secured a place for him in the semi-finals of this League Cup.
A semifinal that will take place next Saturday at 6:30 p.m. on the Lanús court with the presence of both biases and a particular confrontation of styles between two teams whose coaches were also very different as footballers wearing the same Boca shirt.
Fernando Gago’s game was finer and dapper, as “his” Racing plays today, and Battaglia’s was more practical, as this Boca de Battaglia seems to insinuate.
Boca and Racing, Racing and Boca, a semifinal “to rent balconies” It will be the one that will bring this tournament with a previous group stage of this Professional League Cup, which from this can say that it was right with its format, although the next contest will be all against all.
