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SPORTS | 30-01-2018 11:53

Weekend Football Round-up: The Superliga is back

Boca continue to dominate, Talleres beat San Lorenzo in a clash at the top and a false bomb threat forces an evacuation of Huracán's stadium.

Top Story

Off the field, the most eye-catching story of the weekend was the bomb threat announced less than an hour before kickoff between Huracán and River Plate on Sunday night.

The potential threat caused police and stadium officials to temporarily remove all fans and personnel from Huracán's stadium. A federal police bomb squad eventually cleared the stadium, the fans and clubs re-entered, and the game kicked off with a 75-minute delay.

Neither team had entered the stadium when the bomb threat was announced. Both team buses idled a few blocks away from the stadium, and the team of referees sheltered in a police squad car. Crowds of fans milled about in the street, awaiting the all-clear.

While it's unclear how much the delay may have affected the team, River Plate disappointed. Despite 17 shots and 73 percent possession, they failed to take anything away from the Estadio Ducó, losing 1-0.

Argentine Superliga

After a long, hot summer break, the Argentine Superliga is back in action. The nation's top football league had its first full game week over the past four days, which provided plenty of headlines.

In a clash toward the top, Talleres Córdoba defeated San Lorenzo 2-0 on Friday. With Boca Juniors' 2-0 win against Colón and San Lorenzo's loss, the Xeneize is now six points clear at the top of the table. San Lorenzo is now in second and Talleres in fourth. Unión, Huracán and Belgrano all won to keep pace in the top six. 

To round out the Big Five, Racing (Unión's opponent) and Independiente (to Estudiantes) both lost, as well as of course River Plate, floundering in 20th place.

To distill it down to one narrative: Boca is the easy favourite to win the league, especially with River much too far back to do anything. A scrappy chasing team could make a play for it, but it looks more like second through fifth place will be doing just that, fighting it out for second through fifth place.

Find the whole week's results here, and the league table here.

La Selección

For what feels like the millionth time, Lionel Messi was the hero of first-place Barcelona's (Spain) 2-1 comeback win against 17th-place Alavés, scoring the winning goal in the 84th minute. Barcelona is 11 points ahead of second-place Atlético Madrid in La Liga.

Nicolás Gaitán was not in the squad for Atlético Madrid's (Spain) 3-0 win over 19th-place Las Palmas, amid continued rumors of him leaving the club before the January transfer window closes.

Éver Banega played 90 minutes in central midfield in sixth-place Sevilla's (Spain) 1-1 tie with ninth-place Getafe.

Sergio Agüero came on at halftime for the injured Leroy Sané in Machester City's (England) 2-0 win over Cardiff City in the FA Cup.

Érik Lamela was not in the squad for Tottenham's (England) 1-1 tie with Newport County in the FA Cup.

Marcos Rojo and Sergio Romero both played 90 minutes in Manchester United's (England) comfortable 4-0 FA Cup victory over Yeovil Town.

Ángel Di María scored from right wing forward and played a full game in first-place Paris Saint Germain's (France) 4-0 win over seventh-place Montpellier. Javier Pastore came on as a second-half substitute in central midfield.

Gonzalo Higuaín started at center forward and scored in second-place Juventus' (Italy) 2-0 win over 13th-place Chievo Verona.

Ezequiel Lavezzi and Javier Mascherano play for Hebei China Fortune (China), which begins its season in the Chinese Super League in March.

Tweet us @theBAtimes or me @jacobmeschke to let us know if you want something different in your Weekend Football Round-up.

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Jacob Meschke

Jacob Meschke

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