Deportivo Ristra welcomes Paracas Central to the Guillermo Laza Stadium in a Round of 16 match of the 2025 Clausura, under the management of Nicolas Ramírez, who will have all eyes on him. The match will have a lot at stake. Not only because of what it means to get to the next instance, but also because these two teams are linked by power.
The meeting started with One yellow card on each side. The first was at 18 minutes. Nicolas Demartini, from Paracas, committed a strong foul on Facundo Mino, from Riestra. Ramirez did not hesitate to warn the visiting team player. The next one was a minute later. Local striker Alexandre Diaz arrived late and hit Facundo Mater at knee level. The judge also did not hesitate to show the color yellow. At this moment, everything remains from 0 to 0. With this result there will be an extension. If equality persists, there will be penalties.
The person who had much greater prominence in the controversial arbitration rulings was Paracas, AFC President Claudio Tapia’s team is in one of the stadium’s booths to watch the match. Elguapo achieved the classification at this stage after its draw with Huracan last Monday, in which the referee was Andres Gariano in the midfield and awarded two penalty kicks at the request of the Video Assistant Referee in favor of Paracas. The same judge then threatened former Globe coach Frank Koudelka.
But in addition to that encounter, Tapia’s team benefited in other matches such as Estudiantes de la Plata, Belgrano, Newell’s, etc. Without going any further, it was the President of the Argentine Football Association who referred to refereeing in Argentine football. He said last Wednesday during an event held by the sports newspaper Ouellet: “It is not always the referee’s fault, because when a team loses, it also loses because it was defeated. It is not because of a refereeing error. Of course there are refereeing errors and we are working to correct them.”
Finally, he was asked about the positive rulings for teams like Paracas Central, for his association with him, but Tapia only responded by referring to what is happening with Deportivo Ristra, one of the clubs most targeted by arbitration aid: “You (journalists) said Ristra, and yet Ristra has played 24 or 25 home games without losing.” Then he stated in his response to the former president of the Argentine Football Association: The proposal was also present with the Grondona, and it is not new, it has always been there. This has always been harmful, and this does not help improve football; “On the contrary, you also have suggestions that are made by errors or not, but you also have mathematical reality.”
In this context, these two teams are being measured, having already guaranteed, at least, a presence in the 2026 Copa Sudamericana. However, if one of them wins the title, they will be present in the Copa Libertadores. Once this match ends at midnight, they will face the next opponent to be eliminated as Union and Gimnasia de Santa Fe meet starting at 10pm.