\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t The 2026 Torneo Apertura, the tournament that opens the season for the Argentine Professional Football League, has entered the quarter-finals stage after a weekend that saw 16 clubs face each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The eight teams that won will clash on Tuesday and Wednesday, with home-ground advantage for the higher seed, in a single-match elimination for a spot in the semis and a step closer to the title.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These are the matchups that will see four favorites emerge.<\/p>\n
Belgrano (C\u00f3rdoba) vs. Uni\u00f3n (Santa Fe) The Pirata from C\u00f3rdoba took out its traditional derby rival Talleres on Saturday, in a high-stakes duel that broke what had been a deadlock of seven consecutive ties between the two.<\/p>\n
It will go up against Uni\u00f3n from Santa Fe, which pulled off the shock win of the first round, upsetting the Annual Table leaders, Independiente Rivadavia, 2-1 in Mendoza. It is the fifth year in a row that top-seed teams are out in round of 16.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll face off on Tuesday, May 12, at 7 p.m. at Belgrano\u2019s Julio C\u00e9sar Villagra stadium<\/p>\n
Argentinos Juniors vs. Hurac\u00e1n The second of Tuesday\u2019s duels will bring the focus back to Buenos Aires City.<\/p>\n
Argentinos Juniors soundly took out Lan\u00fas, with a 2-0 win at La Paternal. The only seeded team to progress in the tournament on Saturday cemented its candidate status.<\/p>\n
It\u2019ll go up against a Hurac\u00e1n team that pulled the other big shock of the first round. It took out Boca Juniors at La Bombonera in a 3-2 thriller that went to extra time. It was the Xeneize\u2019s fourth home tournament elimination in just 15 months.<\/p>\n
Argentinos Juniors will host Hurac\u00e1n at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium at 9:30 p.m. on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Rosario Central vs. Racing Club Action on Wednesday opens up with a favorite and a dark horse.<\/p>\n
Rosario Central earned a well-deserved 3-1 victory over Independiente to make it to this stage. Spearheaded by \u00c1ngel Di Mar\u00eda, the team also showed its bright future, with goals from two players born in 2007.<\/p>\n
Racing secured a much-needed 1-0 win against Estudiantes in the 89th minute away from home. It was fresh air for Gustavo Costas\u2019 team, who are on the brink of elimination at the Copa Sudamericana and barely qualified for the Playoffs.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll clash at the Gigante de Arroyito stadium, in Rosario, at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
River Plate vs. Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata The last matchup of the quarters sees River host Gimnasia.<\/p>\n
River required a miraculous finish to seal their ticket to the quarters, after securing a 2-2 tie in the 121st minute of extra time against San Lorenzo. In the penalty shootout, young goalkeeper Santiago Beltr\u00e1n \u2014 who was one of the surprises included in Argentina\u2019s World Cup long list announced on Monday \u2014 emerged as the hero, saving two penalties for the win.<\/p>\n
Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata surprised V\u00e9lez Sarsfield away from home, securing a hard-fought 1-0 victory at the Jos\u00e9 Amalfitani stadium.<\/p>\n
The two will face off at the Monumental stadium at 9:30 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 2026 Torneo Apertura, the tournament that opens the season for the Argentine Professional Football League, has entered the quarter-finals stage after a weekend that saw 16 clubs face each other.\u00a0 The eight teams that won will clash on Tuesday and Wednesday, with home-ground advantage for the higher seed, in a single-match elimination for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":61955,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,3969,67],"tags":[1368,16067,1369],"class_list":["post-61954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","category-liga-profesional","category-sports","tag-football","tag-liga-profesional","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}