Boca and Banfield were set to meet in the Copa Argentina semifinal at the estadio Malvinas Argentinas in Mendoza, with the winner moving on to face Platense. The match was scheduled to start at 19, with Nazareno Arasa as referee and TyC Sports carrying the broadcast.
That is why the search for Banfield Vs Boca Juniors is happening now: the game was on the day’s schedule, the lineups had already been released, and the bracket had a direct prize attached to it. For Pedro Troglio, who was steering Banfield into the semifinal, it was a night where one result could carry his team into a final and end Boca’s run at the same time.
Boca’s listed starting eleven put Álvaro Montero behind Leandro Lozano, Lautaro Di Lollo, Facundo Herrera and Malcom Braida, with Leandro Paredes, Milton Delgado and Santiago Ascacibar in midfield and Alan Velasco, Miguel Merentiel and Sebastián Villa up front. Banfield answered with Diego Rodríguez; Juan Luis Alfaro, Santiago Daniele, Ignacio Abraham and Nicolás Meriano; Santiago Esquivel, Tomás Adoryan and Lautaro Gómez; and Alexander Machado, Adrían Balboa and Federico Medina. Those names mattered because the semifinal was not being framed as a routine cup date; it was being framed as a place in the last round before the final.
The small contradiction in Boca’s team note was the detail that made the pre-match coverage worth a second look. The plan said Malcom Braida would come in for Lautaro Blanco, but Blanco was also listed as not even convocated for the match. That means the change could not have been a same-day swap from the bench in the usual sense; it was a lineup adjustment on paper before kickoff, not a substitution during play. In other words, the note pointed to a decision made before the ball was kicked, while still leaving open whether the eleven named before 19 stayed intact at start time.
Arruabarrena put the mood into one line: he said these are the kind of tournaments he likes. For Boca and Banfield, that was the point of the day. One semifinal at Malvinas Argentinas in Mendoza, one place in the Copa Argentina final on the line, and one winner set to move one step closer to Platense.
