San Martín de Tucumán secured a 2:1 win away to Chacarita Juniors in the 26th round of the Primera Nacional on August 23. The visitors took a shock lead before the hosts equalised, then went on to score twice in the final quarter to claim all three points. It was a result that lifted them to 11th place with 36 points, while Chacarita remained rooted in 17th on 27.
Melendez gave the home side their moment of joy in the eighth minute, but the visitors responded with discipline. Brinone picked up a yellow card twelve minutes in, Galvan followed at twenty-four, and then came the substitutions that shifted the game. Facello came off at the hour mark, and by then the visitors had already changed their shape.
Arfaras made his mark in the seventy-first minute, finding the net shortly after coming on. He doubled his tally at seventy-nine, and Chacarita's defence never really recovered. The hosts had thrown everything at it, but the visitors weathered the storm and punished them from the break. Arfaras was substituted himself at eighty-three, and the game settled into its final rhythm.
San Martín dominated possession at 60 per cent and registered five shots on target compared to Chacarita's two. The hosts managed 102 attacks but could only find the back of the net once from two attempts on goal. It was a match decided in those three or four moments, not in the volume of play.
The result moves San Martín further clear of the lower half, while Chacarita's recent run continues to worry. They had drawn with Giménez, lost to Estudiantes, and conceded against Rafaela before this defeat. The clean-sheet run came to an end, and the gap between the sides is now nine points.