BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Colon beat Racing 3-0 in the final of Argentina’s Copa de la Liga on Friday to win their first national championship 116 years after they were founded.
The team from Santa Fe finished runners-up in the first division in 1997 and were finalists in the Copa Sudamericana, South America’s equivalent of the Europa League, in 2019, but Friday marked their first major triumph.
The Copa de la Liga was the tournament designed to replace the traditional league competition that was halted in Argentina for more than six months last year due to the pandemic.
“I’m immensely happy, there are no words to describe what this club is going through,” veteran forward Luis Miguel Rodriguez said. “I hope the people of Colon enjoy it, because they’ve waited 116 years for this moment.”
Colon scored all three goals in the second half, with Rodrigo Aliendro opening the scoring after 58 minutes and Cristian Bernardi making it 2-0 with a neat chip over the keeper 14 minutes later.
Alexis Castro completed the scoring with five minutes left on the clock.
(Reporting by Ramiro Scandolo in Buenos Aires; writing by Andrew Downie; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
