Velez surrenders Argentine lead to Lanus

Lanus ended the weekend as the league leader with 28 points after defeating Rosario Central 2-1 on Friday night, a result that was boosted by Velez Sarsfield's surprise loss to Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata on Saturday.

Lanus scored twice in the second half through Sebastian Blanco and Diego Lagos to cancel out a perfectly executed free kick from Pablo Lima.

Velez was beaten 3-1 by Gimnasia de La Plata in a highly disputed clash at the Juan Carlos Zerillo stadium.

The side from Liniers went ahead with a strike from Jonathan Cristaldo, but goals from Mariano Messera, Sebastian Romero and Juan Cuevas handed the three points to a needy Gimnasia.

Huracan climbed up to third place after thrashing River Plate 4-0 with two goals from Javier Pastore and others from Leonardo Medina and Patricio Toranzo. The result has surely put an end to River's title hopes while boosting Huracan's chances.

Also on Saturday, Tigre dented Colon de Santa Fe's title aspirations after beating it 2-1 at the Monumental stadium of Victoria. Tigre climbed from the bottom of the table with the win.

On Sunday, Boca Juniors returned to winning ways after coming from behind to edge Arsenal de Sarandi 2-1 in a tense encounter at the Bombonera stadium.

On his return after a lengthy injury layoff, Juan Roman Riquelme failed to convert a penalty kick when Boca was losing after an early Mauro Matos goal. But Boca ended up winning the match with goals from Luciano Figueroa and Cristian Chavez later in the first half.

Estudiantes de La Plata which, along with Boca is the only remaining Argentine team in the Copa Libertadores, thumped Independiente 5-1 with goals from Juan Salgueiro, Federico Fernandez, Diego Galvan, Maximiliano Nunez and Carlos Valencia. Daniel Montenegro scored for Independiente.

In Avellaneda, San Martin picked up a valuable 2-1 victory over Racing Club that keeps alive its chances of avoiding the drop. Its goals were scored by Mario Turdo and Matias Urbano, while Marcos Caceres scored for Racing.

Finally, San Lorenzo defeated Gimnasia y Esgrima de Jujuy 3-0, Newell's Old Boys and Banfield drew 1-1 and Godoy Cruz beat Argentinos Juniors 4-2.