And today, at home, where the team during this cycle built a real fortress, he completely rose to the occasion. The idea of Lucas Gonzalez, the brand new coach of Ferroviario, to bail forward, with the lines far from his goal, and thus dispute the ball with River in Núñez, did not work. Not that, far from it, quite the opposite.
Because Martín Demichelis’s pupils celebrated the first goal of the game before 2 minutes. And although Colidio’s celebration was quickly interrupted by the linesman’s flag, which sanctioned an advanced position by Pablo Solari, his assistant, the real goals did not take long to arrive.
The Santiago team, ahead on the playing field, threatened to get close to Franco Armani, but at 6′ they were already losing. Agustín Sant’Anna, Nacho Fernández, Solari, Milton Casco and Colidio came together and, after a flurry of precise passes, the Rafael forward defined in a great way and put the local team ahead.
Colidio himself scored the 2-0 at half an hour, with a header after a good cross from Nacho, but the first half could have ended with four or five goals difference.
The expulsion of Santiago Laquidaín (23′), who brought down Claudio Echeverri when he was going alone towards the goal, further weakened Central Córdoba, who seemed to constantly flirt with the knockout. The Colombian coach, perhaps overwhelmed by the rival’s superiority, only moved the bench – and re-established the defense – in the 34th minute, with the score at 0-2.
But if the initial stage ended only 2-0 for River, it was purely and exclusively due to the goalkeeper’s colossal performance. Luis Ingolotti. The former Alodisivi, a total figure, stood up for his team and avoided up to one, two, three, four, five shots that were destined for a goal. The Barcos, Echeverri, Fonseca, Solari and Casco were eager to continue celebrating so many at the Monumental, but Ingolotti, for the moment, was reluctant to grant it.
Until this match, including the League Cup won by Estudiantes and the recently inaugurated League Tournament, only Tomás Marchiori, Vélez’s goalkeeper, had made six saves in the first half. Today, Ingolotti made eight saves in 45′.
And at the beginning of the match the dynamic did not change: those on the red band immediately looked for the third, and the closest to scoring it was Colidio, who hit the crossbar with his head. With absolute control of the match and the night, Demichelis began to move the bench: he sent Franco Mastantuono and Santiago Simón to the field, first, Agustín Ruberto, then, and Miguel Borja and Héctor David Martínez, last.
And as the minutes passed, without suffering in their goal -Armani barely had to respond to a distant free kick-, the host’s total dominance began to dilute. It came, again, with Sant’Anna, one of the best of the night, and Barco as the protagonists, but Ingolotti continued to respond and the winner began to iron out the match, which lacked emotion in the second half.
But the hierarchy always (or many times) can do more, and Barco, the one who had tried the most, shook off a rival and hung it from the corner (86′), celebrating for the first time in six months. With the contagion and the encouragement of the people, Mastantuono was close to 4-0, but the result was not changed again.
With this resounding success, River started the League Tournament on the right foot, rose to the top of the Annual Table, with 30 points, surpassing the 29 of Argentinos Juniors, Goody Cruz and Barracas Central, and arrives in good momentum. to the clash next Tuesday, May 14 (9:30 p.m.) against Libertad at the Monumental, where they will try to seal their classification to the round of 16 of the CONMEBOL Libertadores.
Then, in a few days, the Millonario will face Belgrano (5/18), Argentinos (5/25), Táchira (5/30), Tigre (2/6) and Riestra (6/12).
