Banfield and Barracas Central played out a 1:1 draw in the Clausura round nine of Argentina's Professional League at the Estadio Florencio Сола on Sunday evening. The result leaves the hosts in twelfth place with eighteen points from sixteen matches, while their visitors sit ninth with twenty-one.
Lautaro Martín Gómez gave Banfield the lead just before the break, slotting home in the forty-fourth minute plus three. He came on for Damián Martínez at the restart, and the move paid off immediately — a moment that fits the pattern of this game, where small decisions carried weight.
Ivan Tapia levelled for Barracas Central with a penalty in the sixty-second minute. To be fair, the visitors had been pressing higher up the pitch all match, and their dominance in possession — sixty-three per cent against thirty-seven — told in the end. They created more, they passed more, and when the referee pointed to the spot, Tapia made no mistake.
And here's the thing — just seven minutes later, Norberto Briasco had a penalty ruled out by VAR in the sixty-ninth minute. That decision changed the complexion of the game entirely. Banfield survived a period of genuine pressure, and by then they had already seen their goalkeeper make two saves while his opposite number had to stop three.
The statistics paint a picture of a match where one side controlled the ball but the other won the moments. Barracas Central registered six corners to Banfield's single one, and their expected goals figure of 1.28 sat comfortably above the hosts' 0.53. Yet the shots on target were close — four for Banfield against three for the visitors — and only two big chances were created by each team.
What this means on the table is a slight step forward for both sides. Barracas Central extend their unbeaten run to four games, having drawn with Argentinos Juniors and Tigre in their last two outings. Banfield, meanwhile, match their recent form — they came back from trailing against Deportivo Riestra earlier in the month, and showed similar resilience here.
We had backed Banfield to win at forty-five per cent confidence before kickoff. The prediction didn't come off, and the reason was straightforward: the game had a way of turning on a single call, and this time VAR stepped in to keep things level.