Estudiantes falls once again
At this point in the events, the result was the least important, because Estudiantes could have even achieved something in the match they lost to Racing last night. The important thing was that they played poorly again, or worse: nothing at all. Maybe, if the kick that moved Juan Musso's goal had broken the tie, the night would have taken a different turn. But it didn't go in, and every minute that passed only showed the weaknesses of a Pincha team that lacked play.
The long passes for Otero's runs were far from enough to imagine the albirrojo team dominating over Racing. The Colombian served the corner kick that Schunke headed in shortly after the start of the match, and on the fifteenth minute he surprised with a shot to the near post. Aimless long balls one after another.
A corner kick in favor led to a quick counterattack that Solari clarified on the right with a cross that Lautaro Martínez anticipated and scored at the near post, and that goal did nothing but crumble an Estudiantes that seemed to be doing better when Racing was reduced to ten men after Solari's expulsion towards the end of the first half.
The team assembled by Lucas Bernardi had one too many players at the back, lacked fluidity, and above all a player capable of moving the ball with some criteria. Lucas Rodríguez tried to do it at some point, but without a clear plan to enlighten a lineup that suffered throughout the entire match. Nothing new, indeed, because they did nothing more than fail again in their attempts, as they have been doing both in the official First Division matches and in the Copa Libertadores.
It was clear that Estudiantes had to win against Racing last night to advance in the idea of qualifying for the 2019 Copa Sudamericana, and also to refine a team model capable of reaching the final stage of the Copa Libertadores Group against Nacional from Uruguay, a match they must win by two goals to avoid direct elimination.
In the second half, after the tough blow represented by Donatti's 2-0, Bernardi sent Pavone onto the field, and with a reference-goalscorer on the pitch, a new hope seemed to be born. However, the fans, tired of the image received from the field of play, began to express themselves from the stands, and around the middle of the second half, before the consolation goal, the Estadio Ciudad de La Plata was a hell for a coach whose team was far from displaying the good football he preached since his arrival and enhanced in the previous break, when he "cleared" the group by leaving aside those who did not adapt to his profile.
The reproaches that descended from the stands had Bernardi as their main target, it's true, but the team also heard shouts... Under pressure, the football response did not come, to the point that at times, with one less player, Racing seemed to have a numerical advantage. Unbelievable, and if the difference in the scoreboard was not greater, it was because a post denied them the third.
The temperature kept rising, Bernardi endured the storm in his position, and when everyone was expecting to know what would happen with his continuity, especially considering that there are a series of highly significant matches ahead, the news was that he would step aside, thus clearing the way for the club's board of directors.
This leadership that evidently made mistake after mistake since Nelson Vivas' departure, because they went to look for Gustavo Matosas, and this cycle ended as remembered, in circumstances very similar to Bernardi's, with a team that has nothing to do with the club's DNA. Mistakes that were transferred to the formation of the squad, understood by this as the arrivals and departures of players who mostly did not meet the needs.
So, a new chapter starts in the final stretch of the season, with a tight schedule in the immediate future and with results that are urgently needed. Another fresh start, one more...