Boca Juniors secured their place in the semifinals of the Closing Tournament by winning 1-0 against Argentinos Juniors in the stadium Alberto J. Armando (La Bombonera)with a goal Ayrton Costa in the first minutes of the game. The team led by Claudio Ubeda He added his sixth consecutive victory and established himself as a serious candidate for the title. Now, Boca Juniors wait for the winner of the cross between Racing y Tigre to meet their next rival in the semifinals.
During the meeting, Agustín Marchesín was key in avoiding a tie on several occasions, standing out with saves against shots from Diego Porcel y Alan Lescano. In the second half, Tomas Molina He came close to equalizing the score with a header that passed very close to the goal defended by Marchesín.
After the game, the coach Nicholas Diez and the footballers Hernán López Muñoz y Erik Godoy They were lapidary with the Xeneize team, which knew how to defend itself through the solid defensive line.
The first to speak was the coach, who highlighted the work of his team at the press conference: “We just missed the goal, Boca scored the goal and had a chance for a counterattack. He didn’t have the ball, he didn’t play. They have made a great effort (for Argentines). Sometimes one deserves more, but it’s football. The beautiful thing about soccer is that the opponent who didn’t play better than us can win. Not at all”.
“We know that Boca has that hierarchy, that in a stopped ball with the punch of Paredes it can convert you. Then they hold on to the game and today they are in the semifinals. “They have their weapons and we have a way of playing that made us win much more than we lost all year,” he added.
For his part, one of the Bicho figures, López Muñoz, was in tune with what his coach expressed. “A detail that cost us the game. They arrived and scored the goal and that’s it, the game ended. We try, we insist but we leave with nothing. We must not leave aside what we did last year, which was very good, the way we played, but “Football is sometimes so unfair that the one who tries or plays the ball the best does not always win.”.
For its part, Erik Godoy He added: “We are leaving bitter. We had a very good year. Today we saw an Argentinos protagonist, having the ball and looking for the game. Unfortunately, Boca found themselves with the dead ball goal, which we knew was a weapon that could hurt us. The rest of the game I think we were up to the task.”
The defender’s analysis of Argentinos Juniors He was even more lapidary: “Boca is in a very good moment, with forcefulness. They kicked us twice on goal and scored a goal. We reached them quite a bit. We feel comfortable, it’s been a while since I’ve seen a Boca take time. Marchesín threw himself on the floor and no one touched him. They gave six minutes and for me it was a little more. But hey, we continue on the same path and we know that they respect us. More in the second half, “They didn’t kick us at the goal and they went behind us.”
For its part, Claudio Ubeda was consulted about the phrases of Nicholas Diez. However, the coach Boca He chose not to confront his colleague. “I’m not looking to confront, I think we knew how Argentinos play and we understood how we had to counteract. a team that has ball possession virtues, when we steal and play into spaces we quickly find goal situations. We had two clear chances in the first half, our game when we can play we do it and when we can’t, we know how to defend. “That’s what we did.”
And he denied that Boca Juniors had a bad time: “I don’t know if having a bad time was what happened in the second half; it’s knowing how to defend yourself too. In football it is not just about going forward and attacking, you have to know how to defend, occupy spaces and take advantage of the difficulties that your rival generates for you and know how to counteract them. For this reason, Argentine soccer is unpredictable and anyone can beat anyone. Argentinos is a great team that plays very well, but “We did things better based on the result.”
