Mouth He had recovered from another expulsion that was as avoidable as it was irresponsible and with one less man he had come back from two goals down. With ten minutes remaining, Boca delivered an immense test of personality, with little play, and turned Velezto today’s best Argentine soccer team. They won 3-2, they reached the final of the Argentine Cupwas one game away from Libertadores 2025 and represented a mega boost for Fernando Gago’s new cycle.
However, Boca was left with nothing because Vélez reacted and shouted victory with two scoring appearances in the 85th and 90th minutes by Agustín Bouzat, a footballer with a xeneize past that the fortineros incorporated a while ago after winning an auction! And then the momentum ended up being for Vélez, who will play on December 11 in the final of the Argentine Cup against Central Córdoba and who also finds the momentum to face the final stretch of the league that shows him as the only leader. Double crown in sight…
We will have to see how much this hard blow affects Boca, which did not win any title in 2024 and also jeopardized qualification for the Libertadores 2025, that competition that it did not play this year and that obsesses it. The semi-final had all the condiments. And it was a great game, one to collect, unforgettable, full of emotions, fueled by the rain that at times accentuated its epic tone. It’s that they challenged themselves with intensity and search all the time.
Vélez took a two-goal lead before 20 minutes. He found Boca badly stopped in the first and Francisco Pizzini resolved it with a shot above. Then the second screamed when Jorge Figal put it inside his own goal in an unusual way. Matías Pellegrini had participated in both goals. A success by Gustavo Quinteros, who included him as a starter instead of the talented Thiago Fernández. With the help of the left-hander and the talent of Claudio Aquino, Vélez enjoyed the dream start.
Matías Pellegrini (Vélez) drives the ball against Jorge Figal
They were two blows for a fragile Boca. Gago added a striker for a midfielder after half an hour, demonstrating Boca’s desperation. Milton Giménez inside, Ignacio Miramón outside. Thus the xeneizes were left with a kind of 4-2-4 in several passages. With Giménez joining Edison Cavani as a double 9 and with Kevin Zenón and Exequiel Zeballos exchanging wings.
In the middle of a back-and-forth development, with sensations of danger in both goals, a center from Marcelo Saracchi appeared and a great header from Cavani appeared against a post to score just at the end of the first half, enough for Boca to park. in the second with illusions of achievement, but…
Boca could not stop Pellegrini, especially Luis Advíncula. The Peruvian had been cautioned before the end of the first half for a foul on the left foot and at the beginning of the second he was sent off for an unnecessary kick far from the goal against Pellegrini himself. Another avoidable expulsion from Boca in a decisive match, the seventh of that style in recent times, almost a kind of virus… Strange that Gago has not replaced Advíncula at halftime knowing that he was at the limit and had to score against an opponent inspired…
Advíncula (Boca) ended up expelled
The semifinal was so crazy that with one more man Vélez was unable to control the game or impose that numerical superiority. And on top of that he was surprised in a counterattack that led to a 2-2 scoreline crowned by the daring Changuito Zeballos, who nailed it into a corner. What’s more: there was a third xeneize cry, that of Tomás Belmonte. With pure heart, Boca hit one of those impacts that can mark a before and after.
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Gago, with 3-2, made a couple of changes to protect himself and try to close the game with a 5-3-1. And even though Boca overcrowded their area, Vélez hit two lethal blows with the man of the auction, with Bouzat, who very close to Leandro Brey’s goal was much faster than the three blue and yellow center backs. Thus Vélez rounded off an epic 4-3. Unforgettable.
