Racing defeats Boca Juniors in the first adventure of the Argentine Super Cup in Abu Dhabi

Racing de Avellaneda celebrates its victory this Friday against Boca Juniors in Abu Dhabi. RULA ROUHANA (REUTERS)

With a penalty in added time, Racing de Avellaneda defeated Boca Juniors this Friday for the Argentine Super Cup.

The game was played 13,500 kilometers from Buenos Aires.

Last June, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) signed a four-year agreement with the United Arab Emirates to bring Argentine football to the capital, Abu Dhabi.

This Friday's match, a controversial 1-2 draw, but which did not release all the inflamed tension in the last clashes between the two teams, was the first adventure of the Argentine league in a four-year deal to bring "various sporting events" to the gulf country.

The crossing this Friday was the third time that both teams defined an official Argentine soccer championship in recent months.

At the end of last October, Boca had snatched the League from Racing at the last minute of the last game of the tournament.

Both teams played with the eternal rival of the other in the definition.

Boca had reached the last date of the league as the leader and with Racing just one point behind.

The tournament was defined with both games being played simultaneously: Boca won the game against Independiente de Avellaneda until minute 81, when the tie came, and ended up lifting the trophy because River Plate beat Racing stopping a penalty in the last minute added.

For the first (and probably only) time in history, the Boca stadium exploded to celebrate the feat of its greatest enemy.

With Boca as the winner of the First Division championship and the League Cup, the AFA decided to summon the seconds of both in a new one, which ended up calling the Champions Trophy.

Racing beat Tigre, who had lost the Cup to Boca, in a semifinal and crossed it again in a final.

Almost two weeks after the definition of the League, this time Avellaneda's team won.

The game was one of the most violent in recent Argentine soccer memory.

A 2-1 that was defined in the 118th minute and ended with 11 players sent off.

The referee had to end the game early because Boca had been left with only six players on the field.

With the contract with Abu Dhabi hot in their hands, the AFA summoned both teams again for a new final: the International Super Cup, which defined the great champion of the 2022 season. Boca began by winning the game in the 17th minute and Racing succeeded. it equalized two minutes later.

The game was locked throughout the second half with a great performance by the Boquense goalkeeper, Javier García.

Racing, which did not stop attacking until the last minute, had the last chance at minute 47 of the second half.

The referee scored a handball from defender Agustín Sández in the Boca area and after almost five minutes of protests from the Boca players, Gonzalo Piovi scored for the

The tension due to the impromptu final marked the week of Argentine soccer, which is still preparing the return of the League after the victory of the team in the World Cup in Qatar.

The players traveled together on a specially equipped flight that took them together to Abu Dhabi on a 22-hour flight with a stop in Madrid.

Local media speculated on how they would raffle places on the plane to avoid clashes, but the 2022 fights appear to be behind them.

The controversy, then, focused on the attendees: Rafael Di Zeo and Mauro Martín, clashing leaders of the Boca Juniors barra brava, traveled to Abu Dhabi and were at the stadium despite the fact that they are prohibited from entering Argentine stadiums through various legal proceedings.

The most notorious is a confrontation between the two, in 2013,

in which two people were killed in the middle of the war for control of the stands.

The Emirates did not have an agreement with Argentina to prohibit their entry to the stadium.

The ultras will return to Argentina on their own, and now the focus is on the return of the other participants.

With the seats on the plane already divided between Boca and Racing, it remains to be seen how the referees will return: they are scheduled to return on the same flight, but the Boca players are infuriated by the penalty taken at the last minute.

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