Cóccaro comes off the bench and delivers: Newell's beats Banfield with a brace in half an hour

Matías Cóccaro came off the bench and changed the complexion of the match in just half an hour. The forward, who didn't even start, scored both goals in the 2-1 win that saw Newell's Old Boys get past Banfield at the Marcelo Bielsa stadium in Argentina's Primera División. Banfield only pulled one back in stoppage time, from the penalty spot, by which point the result was all but settled.

The first half was end to end without goals, with chances for both sides but no finishing touch: Martín Ortega tried a header in the 4th minute, Ignacio Ramírez wasted a chance in the 16th, and Facundo Guch forced a good save from the visiting goalkeeper in the 30th. Banfield had its moments too, with shots from Tomás Adoryán, Alexander Machado and Santiago Daniele that missed the target. With the score level, Ignacio Ramírez went to the bench at halftime and Cóccaro came on, a substitution that would prove decisive.

Cóccaro's one-two punch

Just after the restart, in the 50th minute, the reward came: following a counterattack, Walter Mazzantti whipped in a precise cross and Cóccaro headed it home to make it 1-0. Newell's kept the upper hand and wasted little time extending the lead. In the 76th minute, off an assist from Facundo Guch, Cóccaro himself finished with his right foot from the center of the box to make it 2-0, his second goal in less than half an hour on the field.

Banfield tried to respond with substitutions (David Zalazar, Matías Hernández, Lautaro Gómez and Lisandro Piñero all came on in search of a reaction) and created some chances through Lautaro Gómez and Bruno Sepúlveda, but only pulled one back in stoppage time. In the 92nd minute, after a VAR review, a penalty was awarded for a foul by Lautaro Giannetti inside the box, which Banfield converted to make it 2-1. There was no time left for anything more.

By the numbers

The stats reflect an evenly matched game in terms of overall play, though with a slight edge for the home side in the penalty areas.

Newell's had more and better clear-cut chances (four to one), which partly explains how it managed to win a match so evenly contested in total shots. However, the xG generated in the match (an in-house estimate calculated from shot locations) gives Banfield a slight edge: 2.298 to the home side's 1.523. In other words, based on the quality of the chances it had, the visiting side might have taken more from this match, but Cóccaro's efficiency tipped the balance the other way.

The result also runs counter to what had been projected before kickoff: our preview gave Newell's a 37% chance of winning, against 32% for a draw and 31% for a Banfield win, with expected goals of 1.19 for the home side and 1.06 for the visitors. The outcome ended up more comfortable for Newell's than those figures suggested, though the late penalty brought some drama back to a scoreline that had looked settled.

What the result means

With this win, Newell's Old Boys moves to 10 points in Group A, sitting in fifth place, with a record of three wins, one draw and two losses in six matches played. Banfield, for its part, doesn't figure among the top spots in the standings shown, and this setback leaves it needing to bounce back in the next round. For Newell's, the great news was Cóccaro's efficiency as soon as he stepped onto the field: two goals in under thirty minutes that ended up making the difference on a night when, according to the match's underlying numbers, Banfield didn't deserve to walk away so empty-handed.