Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata beat Vélez Sarsfield 1-0 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Torneo Apertura 2026. The goal came in the 13th minute of the first half, when Marcelo Torres scored from a penalty after Joaquín García committed a foul on him inside the area. Referee Andrés Gariano signaled the penalty and Torres took a run, stopped and executed a cross-shot that hit the right post and went into the goal of Álvaro Montero. From that moment on, Vélez went out to look for the equalizer and generated a series of approaches that the Platense team was able to neutralize. Germán Conti, Mateo Seoane and Nelson Insfrán were the most active in the defensive tasks of the Lobo, who retreated in order to maintain the advantage. In the second half, Enzo Martínez received a red card for a serious foul play against Manuel Lanzini, and Gimnasia had to manage the result with one less player. The coach introduced the changes of Matías Melluso for Pedro Silva Torrejón and Renzo Giampaoli for Augusto Max to reorganize the defensive block. With ten players, the Lobo resisted the siege of the Fortín for more than half an hour. The Liniers team generated opportunities through Florián Monzón, Lisandro Magallán and Tobías Andrada, although none found their destination. The VAR also had its intervention: it annulled a Gimnasia goal for offside position of Torres before the valid goal, in a play that generated confusion in the stadium. The result placed the Platense team in the quarterfinals of the tournament, where they will face River Plate, who eliminated San Lorenzo on penalties. Gimnasia arrives at this instance with a streak of four consecutive wins in the local tournament — against Argentinos Juniors, Belgrano, Estudiantes RC and Sarmiento — and now reached the seventh consecutive victory if the Copa Argentina is included. The most recent precedent between both teams was also favorable to the Lobo: on November 10, 2025, they won 2-0 at home, with goals from Torres and Jeremías Merlo. The Fortín of Guillermo Barros Schelotto accessed this instance as third in Zone A with 28 points, but during most of the Regular Phase they looked at everyone from the top. Their three consecutive draws against San Lorenzo, Unión and Newell’s made them lose ground and were relegated by Estudiantes and Boca Juniors. Despite this, their position in the table allowed them to be local in this elimination instance against one of the revelations of the championship. The Platense Lobo gave a turn in the middle of the competition with the dismissal of their coach Fernando Zaniratto and the election of the Reserve team coach, Ariel Pereyra, as their interim replacement. This change on the bench was key to achieving the classification to the direct elimination stage because the Pata Per