A Miguel Borja in a state of grace scored a hat trick for River Plate to beat Tigre 3-1 at the Monumental stadium, while Boca Juniors presented a pale image and succumbed 1-0 on Sunday in their visit to the modest Platense, in disputed matches on Sunday for the fourth round of the Argentine league.
Borja, called up for the Copa América by the Colombian team, scored two penalties, at 12 and 58 minutes, and the same at 53 minutes to give the victory to “Millonario”, who were one point behind the leaders, Racing Club and Workshops. For Tigre, Gonzalo Maroni temporarily equalized, also from a penalty, at the end of the first half.
“This is something very nice, which motivates one to continue trying. I want to be on par with 2016, when I also scored a lot of goals,” declared the Colombian striker, who scored his second hat trick in River.
Martín Demichelis’s team closed in a great way a week that had started awry, with a 1-0 defeat against Argentinos Juniors in the league, and which began to straighten out with a 2-0 victory over the Venezuelan Deportivo Táchira, a result that allowed them finish the group stage of the Copa Libertadores as best first.
At the Vicente López stadium, the Argentine-Spanish Mateo Pellegrino, son of coach Mauricio Pellegrino, scored in the 67th minute for “Calamar”, who deserved to win by a greater difference.
“Xeneize” played with ten from the first half, due to the expulsion of their captain Marcos Rojo.
“I hope we don’t regret the lost points later. Unfortunately, against fighting teams it is difficult for us, as a visitor it is difficult for us. We have Vélez and the Argentine Cup left to finish this stretch of the year,” declared Boca goalkeeper Sergio Romero.
Diego Martínez’s team had just tied 0-0 with Talleres in the iga – in which it only added four of 12 points – and from beating Nacional de Potosí 4-0 in the Copa Sudamericana, in both cases in La Bombonera.
For the visit to the Vicente López stadium, Boca did not have the Uruguayan attacker Edinson Cavani due to an ankle discomfort and recovered the Peruvian defender Luis Advíncula, who was out for two weeks due to a strain.
In the first stage there was a clear penalty foul by Rojo on Gastón Suso, not charged by Nicolás Ramírez nor warned by the VAR.
The visit handled the ball, but the host was the owner of the procedure. Everything became even more complicated for “Xeneize” when Rojo received the second yellow card in the 35th minute for a slap in the face from a rival.
The “Squid” continued to reap merits in the complement. And the zero was broken when after a great save by Romero, Pellegrino appeared to push the ball into the net to lead his team’s first victory in the contest.
Boca did not react. On the contrary, the difference in favor of the team led by the Favio Orsi-Sergio Gomez duo could have been greater if it had not been for the interventions of Romero and some extremis clearances by the visiting rearguard.
Platense almost ended up paying dearly for its lack of effectiveness, since in added time, substitute Norberto Briasco wasted an excellent chance to tie.
It had been seven games, and 27 years, since “Squid” had beaten Boca, which in turn did not convert in three of the four dates of the tournament.
Talleres, with a double from Chilean Bruno Barticciotto, rose to the top by beating Central Córdoba 4-2 in Santiago del Estero.
With a goal in added time from veteran Marcos Ruben, on his return to the club, Rosario Central rescued a 1-1 draw at home against Lanús. Enzo Copetti made his debut in “Canalla”.
In addition, Instituto defeated Gimnasia y Esgrima 2-1 in Córdoba.
