What a couple of points Racing missed, which was two goals up at halftime and was getting fully into the fight for the championship. And what a tie Tigre de Avellaneda won, after giving a master class on how not to give up. It was a real game that the Academy and the Matador animated at the Presidente Perón stadium, with very high individual performances, bloopers that will serve as comic relief in the video summaries and a 3-3 tie that made the spectators vibrate.
The reasons why Fernando Gago decided to remove MatÃas Rojas with 30 minutes to go will remain in the minds of Racing fans. The Paraguayan was the undisputed figure on the field while he was on it and yesterday, in his 95th match with the Racing jersey, he may have received his greatest amount of applause after being highly resisted due to his irregular performances since he was bought in 2019.
The number 10 jersey was a fundamental participant in the first and third goals, beyond several other good interventions. At 9 minutes, he “killed” a cross shot from Insúa with his chest that will remain in the memory. With that same movement he left winger Prietto on the way and then sent the cross for Copetti to make it 1-0. Later, towards the end of the first half, he broke Roffo’s goal with a sublime free kick to the post. number one.
Meanwhile, Racing had made it 2-0 with a home run from Chilean Mena, overflowing and centering in the middle for a shot by Lolo Miranda in the 28th minute. And, a little while later, an unfortunate slip by Galván ended with the defender knocking down Alexis Castro inside the area: penalty kick and goal by Mateo Retegui.
That was not the only blooper of the meeting. At minute 62, when Rojas had just left, Chila Gómez wanted to feint inside the area against Ijiel Protti -another who had just entered- and ended up cursing the sky when Tigre’s man stole his wallet and put in the discount.
Racing felt the blow from Tigre and had a bad time until the end, even though it had two very clear chances: an entry into the Mura area after a great pass from Cardona from the ground that ended with the winger delaying the definition and being neutralized by the defense ; and a header from Chancalay practically two meters from the goalkeeper that the former Colon directed towards his belly.
And with two minutes to go, what had to happen happened: Protti hit the post with a header and Retegui, much more attentive than all the Racing defenders, went in search of the rebound and, also with a header, equalized .
It was the last scene of a great game between Racing and Tigre in Avellaneda, which distributed a point for each one and left the locals very angry with the referee (for not expelling Luciatti in Rojas’s free kick play, when he knocked down Copetti who went alone to the goal; and for stopping a dangerous play in stoppage time to attend to a visiting player).
Thus, the Academy (19 points) was six behind the leader Atlético Tucumán (25), while Tigre remains in the middle of the table with 13 points.