The time for speculation, hunches, and words is over. At 4:30 p.m. tomorrow, the ball will start rolling at the Kempes: the face-off between Talleres and Belgrano in the Round of 16 of the Liga Profesional Apertura will get underway and, with it, a Córdoba derby that, everything suggests, will make history.
That will be the case because it will be the first one in a direct knockout stage in the First Division and because a draw will not be an option. The winner will advance to the quarterfinals and the loser will end its run in the tournament. It will also put an end to the previous six official derbies in which there was no winner.
When Darío Herrera blows the opening whistle, two teams that did enough on the field to reach this stage — with surprisingly even statistics, since they finished with the same number of points — will draw the attention of the 57,000 albiazul members and fans who will pack the stadium, and of the thousands of Piratas who will follow it on TV. The match will be played with only Talleres fans in attendance and will be broadcast on ESPN Premium.
If the score is tied at the end of regulation, the matchup will go to extra time and, if the tie still holds, to a penalty shootout. The winner will face, next Tuesday, the winner of the Independiente Rivadavia–Unión match, which will also be played tomorrow, but at 9:30 p.m., at Bautista Gargantini Stadium in Mendoza.
It will not be the first time they have faced each other this year: they played the interzonal match on the 11th round and drew 0-0 at Julio César Villagra Stadium. Talleres ended the regular phase with a 1-1 draw against Unión in Santa Fe and finished in fourth place, a position that allows them to play this derby at the Kempes. Belgrano, meanwhile, is coming off a 4-0 thrashing of Sarmiento at the Gigante de Alberdi and closed the regular phase in fifth place, with 26 points, the same as the “T”.
Talleres: Guido Herrera; Augusto Schott, Matías Catalán, Santiago Fernández and Alexandro Maidana; Matías Galarza and Mateo Cáceres; Valentín Depietri or Diego Valoyes, Franco Cristaldo and Rick Lima Morais; Ronaldo Martínez.
Head coach: Carlos Tevez.
Belgrano: Thiago Cardozo; Leonardo Morales, Alexis Maldonado, Lisandro López and Adrián Spörle; Adrián Sánchez and Santiago Longo or Franco Vázquez; Emiliano Rigoni or Alcides Benítez, Lucas Zelarayán and Francisco González Metilli or Ramiro Hernández; Lucas Passerini.
Head coach: Ricardo Zielinski.
Stadium: Mario Alberto Kempes.
