Sarmiento holds on with a golazo and the VAR, but Barracas Central salvages a penalty-kick draw

Sarmiento had the match in hand for over an hour, but it wasn't enough: Barracas Central equalized from the penalty spot late on and also had a late goal of its own disallowed by VAR deep in stoppage time. The final score was 1-1 at the Eva Perón, in Argentina's Primera División, and judging by how things played out on the field, the point tasted sweeter for the visitors.

The home side struck early, in the 13th minute, with a world-class finish: Jhon Rentería received the ball from Cristian Zabala and curled a left-footed shot from inside the box into the top corner. It was one of the few clear moments Sarmiento had inside the opposing area, because from then on Barracas Central controlled the script, piling on chances through Rodrigo Bogarín, Nicolás Orsini and Enzo Taborda without finding the payoff: there was a shot off the post from Bogarín and several clear chances that either went wide or were cleared off the line.

The equalizer came by way of a penalty kick. In the 72nd minute, Lucas Suárez handled the ball inside the box; the referee didn't call it in the moment, but at the 74-minute mark the VAR sent him to the review screen and he ended up awarding the penalty to Barracas Central. Rodrigo Insúa made no mistake in the 77th minute, sending his left-footed shot down the middle of the goal for the 1-1.

Sarmiento still had one more shot at the three points: in the 86th minute, Junior Marabel found the back of the net, but the VAR waved it off after reviewing an offside position at the start of the play. The match stretched into seven minutes of second-half stoppage time, during which there was even a review for a possible red card for Lucas Suárez that ultimately wasn't shown, and the score stayed put.

Dominance that didn't translate to the result

The numbers back up what played out on the field: Barracas Central controlled the ball and created far more, but kept running into the last line of defense or simply couldn't find the target.

According to our xG estimate calculated from the match's shots, Barracas Central generated 2.846 expected goals to Sarmiento's 1.154, a gap that backs up the territorial edge Damián Ayude's side held, even though the scoreboard ended up level.

The preview had pointed to a far more even contest than how things actually unfolded: we projected a 35% chance for Sarmiento, 33% for a draw and 32% for Barracas Central, with expected goals of 1.06 for the home side and 1.03 for the visitors. The final result, a draw, lined up with that read, though the way the game actually played out (with Barracas Central dominating clearly and Sarmiento hanging on early thanks to that early goal) was a good deal more lopsided than those numbers suggested.

Where it leaves the standings

With this draw, Sarmiento stays in fifth place in Group B with 21 points through 13 matches played (6 wins, 3 draws and 4 losses), while Barracas Central sits seventh with 19 points in the same number of games (5 wins, 4 draws and 4 losses). The gap between the two in the table is just 2 points, something the match itself, with a Barracas Central side that dominated but couldn't close it out, ended up reflecting pretty well.