And then there were 16.
The cream of domestic football (or at least the best 50--odd percent of the top flight) has battled through into the playoff stage of the Liga Profesional de Fútbol, standing four games away from glory and one of the two league titles on offer this year. The action begins this weekend with the last-16 stage, building up to the grand final on June 6.
This opening round throws up a few intriguing clashes. Rosario Central were unbeaten in their last eight Liga matches to seal the best record of any team in the group stage, while the Canalla have also put up five consecutive clean sheets under the direction of the wily Ariel Holan. Their reward is a meeting with Estudiantes de la Plata, who scraped into the play-offs despite going more than two months without a win since downing River Plate on March 1.
It is also worth keeping an eye out on Racing, who looked dead and buried in the Liga amid myriad continental commitments but climbed up to third place in Group A five straight wins to finish off the campaign. They face Platense, who have been extremely solid in 2025 under coaching duo Flavio Orsi and Sergio Gómez, the only such double act in the top flight. La Academia’s prize should they beat the Calamar is a potential meeting with River, galvanised since the Superclásico victory which cost Boca’s Fernando Gago his job and gearing up for their clash with Barracas Central on Monday.
Speaking of the Xeneize, they will continue with interim boss Mariano Herrón for the play-offs, however long they last, starting with Lanús’ Saturday night trip to the Bombonera. And to get the inevitable question out of the way… yes, Boca and River can meet in the final should they win through.
The play-offs are an inherently superficial format, leaving the likes of Central and Argentinos Juniors and their near-flawless Apertura campaigns on roughly the same footing as a team like Estudiantes or Instituto which scraped through on the bare minimum of success. Expanding the qualifiers to 16 as occurred this year only serves to dilute further the talent on display while making for a lot of meaningless, dull matches these past two weeks. What this competition has in favour, though, is intense excitement, and it should be consumed as such.
So sit back, switch off that part of your brain which processes sporting injustices and logic. As Claudio ‘Chiqui’ Tapia is fond of saying, don’t try and understand – and just enjoy the thrills and spills which are certain to come out over this next month of winner-takes-all mayhem.
Are you ready for Franco-mania? (again)
If you thought for some unknown reason this weekend was not already exciting enough sports-wise, buckle up. “Francomania” is returning to Argentina for a second round of Formula One frolics. The aforementioned Colapinto enraptured a nation with his late-2024 exploits but did not receive an offer to drive at the start of this year. He has not been inactive in the interim, conducting a celebrity romance or two and managing to offend the entire nation of Uruguay, but this Sunday he is back in an F1 seat for the Alpine team who signed him to a five-race contract starting with the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at the famous Imola circuit.
Now, this column does not claim to be an expert in motor racing (or football, you might uncharitably be shouting at your newspaper or screen) but we understood Colapinto’s first stint in F1 along the following lines: when vroom vroom go slow, vroom vroom driver look bad. Franco tried mightily to squeeze what he could out of his Williams lemon and it was no easy feat to do what he did with one of the worst cars on the track.
The Alpine car is not exactly going like greased lightning around the tracks but it is a step up in quality from the previous rust bucket and presents a wonderful opportunity for Argentina’s rubber-burning sensation.
And on the bright side, it will be hard to do worse than his predecessor: young Australian Jack Doohan had more crashes than points (zero) in his opening six races of the season, never a positive sign. Pairing up with the aptly named Pierre Gasly Colapinto will have the chance to prove himself, and if nothing else it will all be worth it to see the local media get acquainted with the ever-exuberant Flavio Briatore, notorious playboy, Alpine chief and the Pilar native’s new boss.
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