Boca held by Gimnasia in Mendoza after VAR reprieve and late 2-2 equalizer

Boca Juniors had the victory in its hands, and then watched it disappear in stoppage time. A 2-2 draw with Gimnasia de Mendoza left the visitors frustrated after they had appeared to control the match.

The team had already received a crucial reprieve from VAR, which overturned an almost invisible offside decision. Boca pressed forward repeatedly, but Gimnasia, backed by its home crowd, grew bold and played with the confidence of a first-division side. Herrera’s mistake at the back gave the home team the opening it needed for the equalizer.

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We are furious. We believe we should have taken the victory from this ground. You were winning the match and, beyond the fact that they came at us, it was under control. We could have scored one or two goals, and you leave with the feeling that you let two points slip away.

Alan Velasco was Boca’s clearest positive. He played with purpose, sought the ball and unsettled the opposition, showing more of the qualities Juan Román Riquelme had wanted when Boca signed him. Yet his substitution by Rodolfo Arruabarrena, with roughly 35 to 40 minutes still remaining, became one of the match’s great mysteries. Carlos Palacios replaced him and made poor decisions on several counterattacks, especially the one immediately before Gimnasia’s equalizer.

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I did not see the statement, I know they posted something. Boca deservedly won on Wednesday and was superior to its opponent. I think we are living through a very nervous period. Every match ends with a lot of nerves. The referees and VAR are being heavily criticized in every match. It seems to me that this is where we are headed. It is not easy for anyone.

“We are furious. We believe we should have taken the victory from this ground,” the player said. Boca had recently beaten Lanús with a last-play goal and defeated Vélez on penalties in the Copa Argentina after another late escape. But the club now faces a bureaucratic threat as well. Vélez has asked the AFA Disciplinary Tribunal to overturn that match and Boca’s quarterfinal qualification, arguing that Boca used six foreign players when the rules allow five.

Riquelme dismissed the complaint before the Mendoza match. “Matches are won on the field. That is how it is. It is sport, you win by playing football,” he said. Boca’s latest result, however, added another tense ending to a run of matches increasingly defined by last-minute drama.

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Matches are won on the field. That is how it is. It is sport, you win by playing football.