In the competition to be the center-forward of this Boca of Jorge Almirón, the Uruguayan Miguel Angel Merentiel has just taken a body advantage over Luis Vázquez and came quite close to Darío Benedetto, by history and goals, still the 9 starter of the team, although against Tigre he was on the bench of substitutes but did not enter.
The Beast took advantage of the error of Gonzalo Marinelli, who lost the ball after a corner, at 13 minutes of the first half and billed. However, after the goalkeeper took two headers in the same play and missed a hand to hand in the 23rd minute of the final part. He had several chances and wasted them. "The important thing is that the goal served to win," said the striker after the game, adding: "The plays that I failed, I will have to correct them to turn them into another game."
Merentiel is still fighting for a place as a starter. Sunday's was the seventh since the start out of 22 games. In the last date, he entered against Argentinos and scored the winning goal. Now, another 1-0 with a goal of his own. He has five since his arrival at the club at the beginning of the year, the same amount as Benedetto while Vázquez has yet to score this year. "Pipa (for Benedetto) and Vazquez are two great nines, two great players, and we are going to compete for the position to give the best to Boca," said the former Defense and Justice.
The first goal in a Boca shirt made it his third match, his first as a starter, in a 3-1 win over Platense on February 19. A month later, on March 19, he entered missing 25 minutes against Instituto and discounted for the final 2-3. On April 29, again in the Bombonera, he entered the final part and scored the 3-1 against Racing. While on Friday, May 19, in agony, he scored the winning goal against Argentinos (1-0) after having entered for Benedetto at 18 minutes of the second half.
Regarding the match and how they managed to cut the circuit of Tigre's game, the striker commented: "The idea was to go out to press from the beginning, we did well because we closed the spaces and they had very few chances to kick the goal." Looking ahead, Merentiel is optimistic. "We're going to keep competing, working and that's the way. We know we have to correct things, but today we saw improvements again compared to other games and that's the important thing."
Boca's next match will be on Thursday, June 1 against Arsenal in Sarandí. Who will be the starting 9 for Almirón?
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