The Americas

We didn't have time for much touristing today as once again the football took centre stage!

This time we were headed to Estudiantes v Huachipato in the Copa Libertadores, the South American equivalent of the Champions League. Estudiantes won the first half of the Argentinian season and are also not based in Buenos Aires but 50km away in La Plata. This meant we had to catch the metro and then an hour coach to get to the ground.

The ground is probably the most modern and best kept we've seen in our time away, but this didn't stop the family stand from trembling and shaking under the pressure of the crowd!

The two sides went into the game 2nd and 3rd in their group of 4, with the away side being just a point ahead with 2 games to go! It was therefore a huge 6 pointer for the competition.

Estudiantes (4 times previous winners of the competition) went 1-0 up after 12 minutes and looked comfortable for a while. We expected the game to be a procession victory, just like Racing Club the day before.

We were wrong.

In the 10 minutes before halftime the Chilean away side scored twice, to go in ahead at half time, the second goal coming from a home defender turning a cross into his own net.

Within 5 minutes of the start of the second half Estudiantes were level, but conceded again before the home fans had sat down from celebrating the equaliser.

Just after the hour mark Estudiantes equalised once again wahey and kept pushing and pushing for a winner foe the final half an hour.

The away side had well and truly shut up shop and showed no interest in scoring a winner or even playing football. Their players took it in turns (often 2 or 3 at a time) to sit on the floor and/or roll around at any given opportunity, even when they'd committed a foul themselves or were nowhere near anyone at all. Dan even said he'd 'never seen anything like it'.

We were anticipating double digits added time, but no, 5 minutes on the board was a kick in the teeth to all involved with Estudiantes. Estudiantes kept pushing but a knockout blow was dealt when Huachipato counter attacked in the 95th minute, and converted a 1-on-1 chance to make it 4-3 and take all 3 points back to Chile.

It was huge scenes for the travelling fans whilst Estudiantes were knocked out of the competition.

On the way out of the ground Dan was approached by one of the national broadcasters for an interview, but he smartly declined as we couldn't even understand what the interviewer was saying.

Another great game and atmosphere!Baca lagi