Ruggeri’s reflection on Lema’s rude penalty that led to Estudiantes’ goal against Boca: “It’s crazy”

The former footballer gave his opinion about the infraction by the Boca Juniors defender that led to his expulsion and the draw of Estudiantes in the League Cup semi-final

The defeat of Boca Juniors against Estudiantes de La Plata in the semi-final of the League Cup left a lot of fabric to cut with the analysis of some specific and decisive plays that altered the course of the match, such as the rude penalty committed by Cristian Lema and that served for Pincha, through Edwin Cetré, to equalize the match.

In the ESPN F90 program, Oscar Ruggeri gave his point of view on the action that led to the equality of Estudiantes and that left Boca with ten players due to the expulsion of the former Lanús defender. “I want you to explain this play to me, Cabezón,” began driver Sebastián Vignolo.

The world champion in Mexico 1986 stood up from his chair and gave his opinion on the action prior to Estudiantes’ goal. “First, Advíncula is already bad because he is seeing everything that is happening and should be here (points to Guido Carrillo’s position). He is crazy,” Ruggeri exclaimed when observing the play with the center into the Boca area and the freedom of the Pincha footballers.

While Pollo Vignolo stated that it was “all the fault of the two” (for Lema), Ruggeri intervened when observing the penalty that Nazareno Arasa ends up sanctioning. The former defender indicated that the Boca defender should have gone into the collision with his body against his rival so that he would not head comfortably. “If you take me back to that play, I also made that mistake, but I see it coldly now, there were only two of them and if I shot the center right they would score the goal and we wouldn’t be talking about the penalty,” he concluded.

* Estudiantes’ tying goal after Lema’s rude penalty

Later, Cabezón recognized that Lema was well sent off and that he would have even deserved a direct red card instead of a second yellow. Vignolo noted that the Boca defender’s action reminded him of Gastón Sessa’s kick to Rodrigo Palacio in a 2007 Copa Libertadores match that led to the expulsion of the then Vélez goalkeeper.

As for the decisive action in Estudiantes-Boca, after a cross from Eric Meza, Tiago Palacios prepared to head and Cristian Lema, in an effort to reject, ended up kicking him in the head. The referee did not hesitate: he awarded a penalty and showed the second yellow to the central marker, who had been cautioned 30 minutes into the first half.

It turned out to be a correct decision by Arasa, because the former Lanús placed the loot at an unnatural height for the dispute, making the action reckless. The aforementioned Cetré resorted to a furious and high shot to overcome the resistance of a specialist like Chiquito Romero to make it 1-1. And the comparison changed. The rest of the story is known, Pincha won on penalties and will play the League Cup final against Vélez.

* The summary of the match and the classification for the Estudiantes final