It remains to be seen if Ricardo Zielinski will survive the midseason break and still be in charge of Racing in the new year but closing this term with three straight defeats, the 57-year-old’s position as manager hangs in the balance. Unión made it four consecutive home victories thanks to Diego Godoy’s first half goal but despite El Tatengue’s impressive end to the year, the mini-crisis at Racing dominates the headlines.
Zielinski is finding out quickly just how different the expectations are between a club like Belgrano and one of the grandes. A naturally cautious coach, who at Belgrano could happily look to set up to snatch games by the odd goal, has had to radically change his approach and is struggling to meet the demands of supporters at the Cilindro. Despite starting with Lisandro López, Gustavo Bou, Lautaro Martínez and Marcos Acuña on Saturday afternoon, La Academia struggled for inspiration going forward and president Víctor Blanco will have a big decision to make over the next few weeks.
Atlético de Rafaela are probably going to require a great deal of luck if they are going to avoid relegation and they ended the year with a huge slice of good fortune as two own goals paved the way for a 3-0 win over Patronato. Walter Andrade and Renzo Vera both sliced crosses into their own net either side of half time to put La Crema in charge and Kevin Itabel made certain of victory from the penalty spot. Atlético remain rooted to the bottom of the descenso and still look favourites for the drop but ending the year with three points will perhaps bring a new belief.
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