Continental cups steal the spotlight Mouth and of Saint Lawrencewho this week will play in Brazil to qualify for the quarter-finals of different competitions. Both will travel to Belo Horizonte: the xeneizes, because on Thursday they will face Cruzeiro looking to maintain the 1-0 achieved in the first leg, and the cuervos because tomorrow they will visit Atlético Mineiro in the return match, after having tied 1-1 in Bidegain. That is why in the classic that they starred in at the Bombonera both appealed to alternative formations. Of course, there was still plenty of emotion and controversy.
San Lorenzo started out smiling, but Boca ended up celebrating. And the blue and yellow celebrations were loud. This is the classic that is the most difficult for the xeneizes: of the big teams, Boca is only surpassed by San Lorenzo in the history…
Diego Martínez left out 10 starters and Leandro Romagnoli, 7. San Lorenzo enjoyed their moment in the first half. Boca was a mess in that stage: they made unusual collective and individual errors from the middle to the back and almost didn’t shoot at goal. In that context, a very fragile Marcos Rojo put his hand in the area and Andrés Vombergar took advantage of the penalty to put the Ciclón ahead.
Afterwards, San Lorenzo had four clear opportunities to finish it off. And on top of that, they didn’t whistle another clear penalty for a foul by goalkeeper Leandro Brey against Vombergar. Not even the VAR reviewed it. Impossible to understand…
Referee Pablo Echevarría had a difficult match between Boca and San Lorenzo
The story changed in the second half. At the same break, Diego Martínez sent in three starters: Luis Advíncula, Cristian Medina and Miguel Merentiel. And Boca grew noticeably. Meanwhile, Leandro Romagnoli took out Nicolás Tripichio and put in Elián Irala. And San Lorenzo declined.
In 10 minutes, Boca turned it around. First, with a great turn by Milton Giménez and then with a shot by Marcelo Saracchi that grazed Ezequiel Cerutti and found no reaction from goalkeeper Facundo Altamirano. San Lorenzo came close to equalizing in a one-on-one that Cerutti shot wide. The other two goals came at the end. Boca’s 3-1 was a great pass through the lines by Aaron Anselmino and a nice resolution by Merentiel. Meanwhile, Iván Leguizamón made it 3-2 in the 96th with another penalty called for a foul committed against him.
Boca imposed its highest individual hierarchy and showed a reaction. Romagnoli harshly questioned the referee for the penalty not called and for the “small decisions that harmed us. It’s very difficult like this.”
Beyond the morale boost for the game on Thursday in Belo Horizonte, this victory serves to bring Boca to 17 points (after 11 games) in the local league and to be 6 points behind the only leader Huracán, who beat Belgrano 1-0. Now the xeneizes must ratify against Cruzeiro.
