Tigre enjoy double victory at San Lorenzo
Reuters - Sunday 10 June 2012, 23:18
Tigre enjoyed a double victory in the
sometimes crazy Argentine league when they beat San Lorenzo 3-1
at home in the suburb of Victoria on Sunday.
They climbed within a point of leaders Boca Juniors with two
matches to go in a tight Clausura title race while at the same
time climbing out of the relegation zone.
Tigre have been fighting on two fronts all championship,
most of the time in the bottom four of the separate relegation
standings which are determined by teams' average points over
three seasons.
Their much improved team this season have been battling to
accumulate enough points to make up for a poor 2009/10 campaign
and survive in the top flight and this has been their prime
concern rather than trying to snatch the title held by Boca.
"For us, the prestige and glory is to keep the Matador in
the first division, that's worth more than a championship,"
midfielder Roman Martinez, scorer of two goals, told reporters
using Tigre's nickname.
Asked if the team think about their title chances, Martinez
added: "Really, the two things go hand in hand in a way, because
one thing led to the other, but we're not losing sight of which
is our priority."
Striker Ezequiel Maggiolo opened the scoring for Tigre and
Martinez added two more goals either side of midfielder Leandro
Romagnoli's reply with a free-kick for the Cyclone, who had
midfielder Enzo Kalinski and defender Walter Kanneman sent off
in the final 23 minutes,
Tigre and Arsenal, two teams who have never won the league
title, are both one point behind Boca with Newell's Old Boys a
point further back in fourth place.
San Lorenzo, one of Argentina's "Big Five" clubs with 10
league titles to their name, remain three from bottom in the
relegation table.
f they stay there at the end of the season
they will meet a team from the second-tier Primera B Nacional in
a promotion-relegation play-off.