Ramon Santamarina win 4-3 on penalties after 0-0 draw

What does it take to stop a team from a tier above on its night? Four penalty kicks, a keeper who saved for hours, and a dressing room full of men new to the club. Club y Biblioteca Ramón Santamarina did it on Wednesday, 30 April, at Estudiantes (LP) Stadium, holding Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro to 0-0 and then winning 4-3 from the spot in the Copa Argentina.

San Lorenzo, the well-known continental name with 16 major titles, kept the ball 54 per cent, completed 603 of 654 passes and mustered 10 shots to three. Their expected goals read 0.91; the visitors' read 0.11. Yet Juan Manuel Ponce, the goalkeeper, made four saves, tipped one shot over or round the post and parried another, and his side went through.

The visitors arrived with five of their eleven starters signed in the window this winter: Santiago Guerrero at right-back, Federico Desio and Jorge Rodríguez in the middle of the defence, Lorenzo Cejas at left-back, and Axel Echeverría behind the line. Four of them started for the first time in the reports. They had little of the ball, but Jorge Rodríguez won four interceptions and the back five held.

San Lorenzo had changed shape for the occasion, going to a five-back line rather than their usual arrangement, and they went to work through that back five. Francisco Scacchi, rated 7.8, was the stand-out on his side; Gerónimo Sosa completed 99 of 103 passes and Hugo Luján made four interceptions. The bench had options, but not everyone: Gonzalo Weisinger, a regular who has started ten of their last twelve games, did not feature at all. Federico Pereyra, rated unconvincing, filled in at right wing-back.

The one yellow came in the 78th minute, to Eduardo Romero. The referee was Jonás Vidal. The attendance was 21,783, and the ground held its breath through the penalties.

There is a footnote that sharpened the night. Jiménez played for Ramón Santamarina from 2050/51 to 2052/53, 67 games and 16 goals. He had left that dressing room more than a decade ago. On Wednesday he came on for his former club, and the two teams went to penalties. He did not kick.

"We knew what we were doing," a player said afterwards. "The lads who signed in January, they came in and did the job."

For Ramón Santamarina, a national name in the Second Division with two major titles, the win is the kind that gets retold for years. For San Lorenzo, the season's cup run ends on a Wednesday in April, one day before this pages go to print. The Premier Division table will not change. The cup will. That is all the Copa Argentina asks.