Costas in trouble: Racing hit by absences ahead of Boca semi-final clash | OneFootball

The Academy eliminated Tigre and advanced to the next round of the Clausura, but finished with two players sent off, adding to another with muscle discomfort.

Racing’s great victory over Tigre, winning 4-2 on penalties to qualify for the Clausura semifinals—where Boca awaits—left Gustavo Costas’s team with a couple of important absences because Santiago Sosa and Gastón Martirena were sent off and will not be able to play in the derby.

The Uruguayan saw red 10 minutes into extra time for an alleged gesture or insult towards referee Andrés Merlos, who showed him a second yellow while a possible penalty for the Academy was being reviewed and sent him to the locker room, a moment that unleashed the right back’s fury.

Meanwhile, the midfielder had already been booked just after the first half-hour for stopping a counterattack, and in the 117th minute received his second card for a kick to the face of forward Alfio Oviedo.

Although the excitement is settling in Avellaneda after another joyful win, the coaching staff is already starting to think about the derby. The most likely replacement at right back is Facundo Mura, who has yet to renew his contract and could leave at the end of the year, while in midfield there are several options: Bruno Zuculini, Alan Forneris, or even Franco Pardo, originally a central defender who came on against El Matador for the final minutes.

But the bad news for Racing might not end there, because they’ll have to see how the players who played the entire match and extra time finished physically, so they will be evaluated during the week.

It is known that forward Santiago Solari, who was replaced by Marco Di Césare in the 119th minute, finished with a muscle problem. TV cameras caught the former Defensa y Justicia player making a gesture as if a muscle had torn, and he will undergo tests to see if he’ll miss the clash with Boca or not.

To them, you have to add others who weren’t even available against Tigre and for whom there is no confirmed return date, such as Marcos Rojo, Luciano Vietto, Ignacio Rodríguez, and Matías Zaracho. Meanwhile,

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