Boca Juniors lost 3-2 against the recently promoted Instituto, in their second consecutive defeat and, in return, their first against the Cordoba team at La Bombonera after 36 years, with goals from Joaquín Varela, Adrián Martínez and Santiago Rodríguez, while the of the “xeneize” were the work of Martín Payero and Miguel Merentiel
The last victory of the “Alta Córdoba” team in this stadium had been 2-1 in 1986 and with this result the technical director Hugo Ibarra’s streak of 14 unbeaten games at home since he took office in July last year ended.
It was a difficult week for the coach, who was hospitalized on Wednesday morning for 24 hours as a precaution, after having had a pressure spike with blood coming out of his nostrils.
The team led by Lucas Bovaglio took a well-deserved victory and if their center forward Adrián Martínez had had better precision in the definition, they could have been more bulky.
However, in the end, when Boca tried to impose its mystique and discounting Merentiel, there was a controversial play in which the goalkeeper Jorge Carranza collided with Luca Langoni and after being seen by the VAR, the referee Jorge Baliño defined that there was no infringement,
The end found the local soccer players among some applause from their public and the whistles of others raising their arms to try to justify a new defeat against a lesser rival.
The first half was barely discreet and Instituto barely went ahead 2-1 against an opponent who went from low to high in their game.
The visitors had the virtue of being effective in the two dangerous plays they created and intelligent in knowing how to hold on in the middle and behind.
Against an adversary that at the beginning of the stage, as always in the last matches. he had a lukewarm attitude and lack of play was his biggest sin.
The people of Cordoba hit two “sledgehammers” before a crowd that kept singing and pushing a team that until 30 minutes into the stage lacked the usual push of the “xeneize” story.
At minute 12, Adrián Martínez executed a free kick and set up a play that culminated in Uruguayan Joaquín Varela pushing the ball one meter from the goal, before Sergio “Chiquito” Romero who hesitated to go out and cut.
And after 18 minutes, faced with a defensive failure between Nicolás Figal and Guillermo “Pol” Fernandez, Adrián Martínez took advantage of it to build a wall with Santiago Rodríguez and then touch it softly before Romero left.
Instituto, with little he got 2-0 and there he began to play the game he knows best: wait with four midfielders in a line and take refuge in the defensive part.
After 30 minutes, Boca began to improve through the growth of Ezequiel “Equi” Fernández and Payero.
A shot from a distance from “Equi” was deflected with effort by Carranza; then Benedetto had it and then Langoni.
Boca grew and around the time of the stage, the midfielder Payero, who comes from playing in the Premier League, with a great goal from a free kick narrowed the differences.
At the beginning of the final part, Santiago Rodríguez made it 3-1 and then Instituto through Adrián Martínez, the figure on the field, could have settled the dispute on several occasions.
Then Hugo Ibarra “burned the ships” and ended up with four forwards on the field: Norberto Briasco, Merentiel, Luis Vazquez and Langoni, and so, pure center against a defense that rejected everything, it was for distant parity.
Baliño’s last whistle found the Cordovan players twinned in the central circle for having achieved a feat that took almost four decades.
On the other side, a world full of questions about the level of a team that is far from satisfied by its game and that now does not achieve the results that had led it to be two-time champion last season.
Boca, who had just lost 1-0 to Banfield in the south, next Saturday will face Olimpo, from Bahía Blanca, starting at 7:30 p.m., at the Sarmiento stadium, in Resistencia, for the 32nd round of the Argentine Cup.
And then, the other weekend they will play as a visitor against Barracas Central, for the ninth date of the Professional League. While Institute on the next date will be local to Talleres, in the Cordovan classic. Both meetings for now do not have a confirmed date.
