Racing dominates, defeats Vélez again and could face Flamengo in the semifinals

Racing didn’t even need to use the advantage built away from home in the first leg, defeated Vélez Sarsfield again, once more by 1-0, and became the first team to secure a spot in the Libertadores semifinals. The match at El Cilindro in Avellaneda saw two shots hitting the crossbar by the hosts and ended with a goal from Solari.
The team led by Gustavo Costas could face Flamengo in the next phase of the tournament. The Rio de Janeiro team will face Estudiantes in La Plata on Thursday after a 2-1 victory at Maracanã. Whoever advances will face the already qualified teams.
The other side of the bracket still features River Plate, Palmeiras, LDU, and São Paulo, who are also fighting for survival in the Libertadores between Wednesday and Thursday.
Who really needed the result? Racing didn’t take the field with the ‘rulebook under the arm’ and launched a blitz on a disoriented Vélez from the beginning of the match. Even with the advantage in the aggregate score, the team made good use of their fans and only failed to score before halftime because the crossbar — and Marchiori — came into play. The visitors, on the other hand, didn’t even take a shot on goal.
In the second half, Guillermo Schelotto’s team woke up and came inches close to scoring in a mistake by Cambeses, but they were neutralized once again within El Cilindro and, after being helped by the crossbar once more, they were finally beaten in the final minutes.
How was the game? It took only four minutes for the match to heat up and have a refereeing controversy: amid a cross into Vélez’s area from a free-kick, Adrián Martínez suffered two consecutive shoves from defender Gómez and claimed a penalty. The referee showed a yellow card to the defender, but did not award a foul to the home team. The reason? The forward was in an offside position at the time of the pass.
The frustration with the referee didn’t stop Racing from continuing to attack, and Marchiori had to work. First, the goalkeeper palmed away a shot from Almendra, and then he made two saves in a row from the hosts’ corners.
Vélez couldn’t relieve the pressure and, at 31 minutes, they hit the crossbar: Solari received the ball on the left wing, found space cutting inside, and struck the ball well, but it was lightly deflected by the opposition’s number 1 before hitting the post and going out for a goal kick.
Vélez woke up in the second half following Guillermo Schelotto’s substitutions, who made changes in midfield by introducing Andrada and Lanzini — the former Fluminense player, in fact, came close in his first involvement.
Unafraid to take risks, the visitors began to cause trouble for Cambeses and narrowly missed altering the score at 17 minutes: in a shot from Machuca, the goalkeeper got confused in making the save but managed to clear the ball just on the goal line. The goal was initially allowed by the refereeing team, but VAR intervened and canceled the goal.
Racing regained control of the game in the final minutes — and ultimately scored. Minutes after hitting the crossbar with Santiago Sosa, the team found the net at 36 minutes when Rojas made a run down the left wing and crossed to the middle, crowning Solari and relieving El Cilindro: 1-0.