Costas aims to end Racing’s international drought | OneFootball

The Academy ended a 36-year drought without international titles in the South American Cup and will try to return to a Copa Libertadores semifinal after 28 years against Vélez.

In the conference where he was officially named as Racing's coach, Gustavo Costas made it clear that what the Avellaneda institution needed to achieve was to win another title on the international stage.

The Supercup won in 1988 had been Racing's last international conquest and Costas' wish came true last year when they won the South American Cup by beating Cruzeiro in the final, in Paraguay. Coincidentally, they had also faced the team from Belo Horizonte in that last title.

The Academy has had an irregular performance during 2025, although on the international stage it reached its highest point by winning the South American Recopa by clearly overcoming, both in the first and second leg, Botagofo, champion of the 2024 Copa Libertadores.

Also, Racing took the first place in the group stage of this 2025 Libertadores; it was the best of the Argentinians who advanced to the round of 16 and third overall only behind Palmeiras and San Pablo. Because of this, plus the draw, it will define in the Cilindro a possible semifinal with Estudiantes or Flamengo.

Costas' Racing will seek this Tuesday to lift a new international promissory note: it has been 28 years since they managed to advance to the semifinals of the Copa Libertadores de América.

The last time they made it among the top four of the most important club tournament on the continent was in 1997, the year in which they lost in the series against Sporting Cristal from Peru, who would later lose the final against Cruzeiro.

Interestingly, in that Copa Libertadores, Racing and Vélez shared a group (won both matches in the zone) and Fortín fell in the round of 16 precisely with the one who would be the executioner of the Academy in the semifinals.

Racing, champion of the Copa Libertadores in 1967, only reached the quarterfinals four times; only once did they manage to advance and those who believe in coincidences, have something to hold on to.

On the way to that elimination against Sporting Cristal, Racing left out an Argentine team (River in the round of 16) and Peñarol (in the quarterfinals), both from the penalty shootout.

However, thinking also about coincidences, there are also bad ones: the last two times the Academy reached the quarterfinals, it was eliminated by an Argentine team: Boca in 2022 (2-1 on aggregate) and 2023 (on penalties).

Meanwhile, the fourth time Racing made it to the quarterfinals was in 2015 and they were eliminated by Guaraní. On all occasions, the Avellaneda team started the series away (until this year they had never won) and defined in the Cilindro, as will also happen now with Vélez.

Racing won the first leg against Vélez with a goal from Maravilla Martínez

Last year, Racing managed to turn the series around against Paranaense by scoring heavily in Avellaneda and thus broke a first streak, that of not being able to advance to the semifinals of an international tournament since that duel against Sporting Cristal. Then, they would become champions.

Now, Costas' team will try to end the drought in the Copa Libertadores and, if successful, be only three matches away from the dream of winning the most important tournament on the continent again

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