Schott's Stoppage-Time Strike Stuns Gimnasia in La Plata Heartbreaker

The cruelest moments in football arrive when hope has already been packaged and prepared for delivery. Gimnasia La Plata discovered this painful truth Saturday night at Estadio Juan Carmelo Zerillo, where Augusto Schott's 90th-minute winner for Talleres Córdoba transformed what seemed a hard-earned point into a devastating 2-1 defeat.

For 89 minutes, Marcelo Méndez's side had clawed their way back into a match that began disastrously. For 89 minutes, they'd shown the resilience that had delivered back-to-back victories and suggested better days ahead. Then Schott arrived, unmarked at the far post, to redirect their season's trajectory once more.

The evening had started with promise evaporating almost immediately. Just 120 seconds had elapsed when Federico Girotti exploited a defensive lapse to put Talleres ahead, silencing the home crowd before they'd properly settled into their seats. It was the kind of early wound that can define an entire evening—the sort that had characterized Gimnasia's recent struggles, with six losses already accumulated through 11 matches.

But Bautista Merlini had other ideas. Five minutes after Girotti's opener, the midfielder seized upon a loose ball inside the area and fired home the equalizer, igniting the stadium and seemingly righting the ship. The goal represented more than mere arithmetic balance; it signaled a team refusing to collapse under early adversity, a marked contrast to recent performances where single-goal deficits had metastasized into routs.

What followed was a tense, tactical chess match. Gimnasia, sitting ninth on 13 points, pressed for the winner that would deliver three consecutive victories for the first time this season. Talleres, languishing in 12th with just 11 points from their opening 11 fixtures, defended with the desperation of a side that had managed just two wins and had drawn four times already—a record suggesting chronic inability to convert opportunities into three points.

The visitors arrived in La Plata having ground out a scoreless draw against city rivals Belgrano Córdoba last weekend, their fifth draw of the campaign. That pattern of splitting points had become Talleres' defining characteristic this season, a tendency toward caution that kept them from free-falling but prevented any meaningful climb up the table.

Gimnasia, meanwhile, had shown signs of recovery. Their midweek victory at Sarmiento Junín—a narrow 1-0 affair decided by Marcelo Torres' stroke-of-halftime goal—followed a demoralizing three-match losing streak that included a 3-0 thrashing by Rosario Central and defeats to Deportivo Riestra and Unión Santa Fe. Torres had been their salvation in those dark moments, scoring in both victories during an otherwise turbulent stretch.

Saturday's match had all the hallmarks of another Torres moment, another narrow victory built on grit rather than grandeur. Gimnasia created the better chances in the second half, probing for the breakthrough that would push them toward the upper reaches of the table. Their defensive shape held firm. The clock became an ally.

Then came the 90th minute.

Schott's finish was clinical, the kind of composed strike that speaks to a player who has visualized the moment before it arrives. For Talleres, it represented their first victory in four matches and only their third of the season—a desperately needed injection of belief for Walter Ribonetto's struggling side. For Gimnasia, it was devastation crystallized into a single moment, the kind that can haunt a locker room for weeks.

The defeat drops Gimnasia to a precarious position, their three-point cushion over Talleres now looking far less comfortable than it did at kickoff. With 13 points from 11 matches, they sit exactly where the season's midpoint will demand serious evaluation: Are they a team capable of climbing toward continental qualification, or one destined to spend the campaign looking nervously over their shoulder?

Talleres' victory, meanwhile, suggests that their draw-heavy start might finally give way to the kind of form that accumulates points rather than moral victories. With 11 points now banked, they remain within striking distance of mid-table respectability, though their negative goal difference and tendency toward defensive football suggest the road ahead remains arduous.

The Liga Profesional Argentina often turns on such moments—last-minute goals that rewrite narratives and recalibrate expectations. Saturday night in La Plata, Augusto Schott authored one such chapter, leaving Gimnasia to wonder what might have been and Talleres to celebrate what finally was.