Racing and the defending champion Flamengo drew 1-1 this Thursday in a match for the third date of Group A of the Copa Libertadores at the Cilindro de Avellaneda.
Gabriel Barbosa (45+3′) scored the opening goal for the Rio de Janeiro team, and Nicholas Oroz (73 ‘) marked the equality of the albicelestes from a free kick.
Both teams finished the duel with 10 players for the expulsions of Gabriel Hauche (25′) on the premises, and Wesley (77 ‘) in the current champion of America.
After completing three dates, racing leads Group A with 7 points, followed by flamenco with 4, while Aucas from Ecuador and Ñublense from Chile complete the table with 3 units.
Gabigol’s record
The albiceleste team was a little more ambitious at the beginning, and there they had the best opportunity to open, in a pitch for Maxi Romero, who entered from the left, but could not elude the goalkeeper Santos.
The game was going to turn around around half an hour, because Hauche committed a foul on Ayrton Lucas that was as strong as it was unnecessary, for which he was booked, and immediately, with a cross over that sector, hit the Brazilian full-back again , for which the referee Jesús Valenzuela showed him the red card.
There was still going to be one more opportunity for the Academy, in a free kick from a tight angle by Oroz, who tried to surprise instead of sending the cross, but found a solid reaction from Santos to avoid the opening.
But Flamengo, now with one more man, began to turn development around and arrive with danger, and warned when gabigol He received and finished off wide in an unusual way, when he was without marks in front of the goal.
In any case, the powerful striker from Fla had his revenge shortly after, on the edge of the first half, in a free kick on the left of the attack, when Erick Pulgar noticed that Gabriel had no marks and assisted the attacker, who beat Arias with a left foot to the right angle.
That goal earned Gabigol to become the first Brazilian soccer player to reach 30 goals in the history of the Copa Libertadores, surpassing Luizao by one.
The Academy shouts it
With more drive than clarity, Racing went over Flamengo in search of the tie, which could have come in an action in which Wesley touched the ball with his hand, but referee Valenzuela, with a poor performance, considered that it was casual and not punished criminal
Flamengo did not know how to go back, nor did they manage to keep the ball, and then they were left with ten players, in another offense by Wesley against Rojas, and from that offense came the academic tie, since Nicolás Oroz measured the shot and placed the ball in the corner right, very far from a Santos who only managed to look.
Although DT Sampaoli moved the bench and sent Giorgian de Arrascaeta and Bruno Henrique to the field, the truth is that Flamengo did not react, and on the contrary, Racing was millimeters away from beating him in a purely handsome action from the youthful Saliadarre, who faced inside the area and faced Santos, but his shot bounced off the right post.
The champion showed an image below what was expected, and after three dates he continues without playing convincingly, while Racing, in the midst of an adverse moment and only getting complicated at times, reacted to the adversity and captured a point that leaves the top of Group A.
On the next date, Racing will visit Aucas on May 23, and the next day, Flamengo will go to Concepción to face Ñublense.
