Martin Cauteruccio celebrates his suspicious match winning goal against Racing

The controversial fixture between Quilmes and Racing ended in the result that the whole of Argentina was expecting. Two sides united in their goal: Quilmes to fight against the alledged foul play of the AFA, who they claim want to save Independiente and relegate them, and Racing to see their fierce local rivals banished to the B for the first time in their history. Last weekend a large amount of Racing fans had made their feelings very public by producing some pamphlets suggesting that they allow Quilmes to win in order to make Independiente’s fight for survival even more difficult. Coach, Luis Zubeldia was forced to answer questions and insist upon the integrity of his side but last night’s 1-0 defeat will do little to hush the conspiracy theorists.  Martin Cauteruccio’s early strike was enough to win the game and while everyone involved has protested innocence, there will remain doubts over the game. REPORT AND GOAL HERE….

A game that Racing should have been keen to win, given that qualification for the Copa Sudamericana is not yet guaranteed had a slight “friendly” feel to it as no yellow cards were produced over the 90 minutes and Racing strangely lined up without a recognisable striker, only Ricardo Centurion offered any sort of threat. Perhaps this is coincidence and nothing will be proved, all that remains is the result.

The only goal came after just 9 minutes when Quilmes broke quickly and Martin Cauteruccio found himself in acres of room on the edge of the box and fired a right footed shot into the bottom corner. Racing never really responded to this and the game simply petered out. Who know what the instructions and the events were but it would be a terrible shame to think that a team would gift victory to another team for any reason, let alone to influence the relegation of a rival.