Thiago Cardozo shines at La Bombonera: "Top 8 was our first aim" | OneFootball

The huge victory of Belgrano against Boca at La Bombonera had Thiago Cardozo as its main protagonist, the Uruguayan goalkeeper who kept the Pirate afloat with several saves to secure three key points in the 2025 Clausura Tournament.

The former Peñarol player, who wore the Peñarol jersey in Argentine football between 2024 and 2025—the year he joined the Cordoba team—made several crucial saves, mainly with his compatriot Miguel Merentiel as the ‘victim’.

His first intervention came just 25 seconds into the game, when the Beast connected with Barinaga and fired a shot that was well saved by the keeper, who once again won a one-on-one against the striker in the 12th minute, this time after a great play by Palacios.

Before the end of the first half, Cardozo shone after a header from Battaglia, and although he was booked midway through the second half for time-wasting, he became a giant again in the final stretch, when Xeneize pressed hardest: in stoppage time, after being saved by the crossbar, he closed down very well and quickly against Merentiel.

Cardozo held onto the last ball of the match, a weak cross from Herrera, who chose him as the man of the match. He picked his best save: “I’ll go with the last one against Miguel, because that was the equalizer.”

“We knew we were going to suffer. Obviously, we’re playing against a big team and of course we were going to suffer, we knew it. The first half was really tough and we managed to hold on, and in the second I think we played the way we wanted. We deserved it for the games we’ve been playing,” added the 29-year-old goalkeeper.

Asked about the next objectives for Ruso Zielinski’s team, who now face the Copa Argentina semifinal against Argentinos Juniors, Cardozo said: “We’re going to enjoy this, since the first goal was to get into the top 8, and now of course we’re going for everything against Argentinos.”

“An animal, an animal, because he fought so hard and deserves these kinds of matches. Sometimes we need everyone in such a long tournament and today he was a beast,” he concluded about Lucas Passerini’s match, the scorer of Saturday’s 1-0.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.