2024-04-21 03:01:00
Argentinos Juniors, with goalkeeper Diego “Ruso” Rodríguez as a figure, won a dramatic penalty shootout against Defensa y Justicia by 3 to 2, at the Banfield stadium, and advanced to the semifinals of the 2024 Professional League Cup after equaling 1 to 1 in regular time.
Rodrigo Bogarín, at 10 minutes, put Florencio Varela’s team ahead, while Alan Rodríguez, at 40 minutes into the second half and with a lucky detour, gave La Paternal’s team equality.
In the penalty shootout, Argentinos Juniors goalkeeper “Ruso” Rodríguez put on the hero’s costume by containing the shots of Esteban Burgos and Alexis Soto, while Leandro Godoy and Aaron Molinas failed in their executions. Nicolás Oroz, Gastón Verón and Rodríguez himself converted for Argentinos, who sealed the series, while Franco Moyano and Luciano Gondou finished wide. Santiago Montiel’s shot was saved by goalkeeper Cristopher Fiermarin. For their part, for Defense and Justice, Víctor Aguilera and Kevin López converted. With this result, Argentinos entered the top four of the competition and will play in the semifinals against the winner of the bracket made up of Godoy Cruz and Vélez.
Florencio Varela’s team started the game with determination and quickly became the protagonist of the game with the management of the actions and a suffocating pressure that gave them results to open the scoring before the quarter of an hour through Bogarín, who then finished from point-blank range. of Leandro Godoy’s pass.
The goal was a blow for the Argentinos, who wandered at times when they couldn’t find their game and with a blurred version, tried to take advantage of the stopped ball. However, José Herrera and then Jonathan Galván could not convert with a header.
As the minutes passed, the level of the match declined and after an impasse, it was Defensa y Justicia that was in charge of adding excitement to the process by flirting with the possibility of converting for the second time, while those from La Paternal gave signs of be in a match at the end of the stage, although without generating so much danger.
In the complement, Argentinos with some changes had a positive effect and with a radical facelift, they showed their best version, in which with their oiled game they dominated the game and cornered their opponent. There appeared the figure of goalkeeper Cristopher Fiermarin, who excelled on more than one occasion.
The match was consumed with an attractive round trip, in which both teams delivered their best version of play and sacrifice, but it was Argentinos who knew how to take advantage to reach equality with Rodríguez’s goal and thus force the penalty shootout.
Already in the penalty shootout, goalkeeper Rodríguez became a giant and after containing two executions and fortunately with deflected shots by his rival, he sealed history by converting his shot.