With the Estadio del Bosque full, the Estudiantes substitutes were late to take their place on the visiting substitute bench and one of the nets was broken, the 166th edition of the La Plata classic captured the Sunday expectation on a sunny afternoon.
The most anticipated soccer match in the city showed extreme enthusiasm from the blue-and-white people who pampered Chirola Romero’s team with thousands of flags, hats, shirts and the typical cotillion of Argentine stadiums.
Both began to play with the formations that had been handled in the previous one and, immediately, the energy they had accumulated to pour it into the field of 60 and 118 was observed.
At four minutes, very early, Estudiantes opened the scoring through an accurate definition by Mauro Boselli. Piatti received from one side, turned and took a low and short cross that, inexplicably, found the striker Pincha unmarked. Boselli dominated and defined down against Durso’s right post, which he tried to reduce without success.
Around the first quarter of an hour, Tarragona opened for Barros Schelotto and received the cross that he connected on the run, but the shot from the Albiazul center forward bounced off Zaid Romero. It was a good arrival from Gymnastics, which slowly began to settle in the red-and-white field in search of an equalizer.
Santiago Ascacibar’s warning, in the 20th minute, was a wake-up call for the red-and-white central midfielder, who began to play conditionally in disciplinary matters. Meanwhile, Benjamín Domínguez continued to be the most mobile and dangerous forward of the home owner.
Estudiantes seemed dull, with no connection between midfield and attack, with a José Sosa somewhat lost in the vertigo that Gimnasia was trying to impose.
The setbacks in the Pincha were not working and, therefore, Gimnasia was betting on generating danger by taking advantage of the free spaces on both wings.
The correct expulsion of Sebastián Romero, for interfering in an effort by Leo Godoy to control the ball against the line, led to a couple of dangerous situations in favor of Lobo. Andújar, first before a faulty clearance by Zaid Romero, and then taking a precise header from Felipe Sánchez, saved his goal and prevented the tie from being consummated.
Estudiantes, who attacked little and arrived with the possibility of increasing the difference, did not have much collective play and appealed to their trade to try to stop the rebound and the mens-healthy improvement that was accentuated by the impetus of their midfielders and forwards.
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FORMATIONS
Gymnastics: Tomás Durso; Bautista Barros Schelotto, Leonardo Morales, Felipe Sánchez and Matías Melluso; Maximiliano Comba, Ignacio Miramón, Alan Lescano and Benjamín Domínguez; Cristian Tarragona and Franco Soldano. DT: Sebastian Romero.
Students: Mariano Andújar; Leonardo Godoy, Luciano Lollo, Jorge Rodríguez, Zaid Romero and Emmanuel Mas; Santiago Ascacibar and José Sosa; Benjamin Rollheiser, Mauro Boselli and Pablo Piatti. DT: Eduardo Dominguez.
Referee: Facundo Tello.
Stadium: Juan C. Zerilo
TV: ESPN Premium.
