Argentine League Wrap, Apr 17

Published Apr. 18, 2011 10:37 a.m. ET

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River Plate stayed on top of Argentina's Clausura championship with a 0-0 draw Sunday at Gimnasia.

The Buenos Aires club played poorly, with little offense, and was fortunate to get a point against Gimnasia, a club lodged near the bottom of the standings.

In other matches, Velez Sarsfield got a late goal for a 1-1 draw at Colon and moved alone into second place with 18 points, one behind River.

Defending champion Estudiantes, playing without injured midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron, drew 2-2 at Olimpo. The result gave both clubs 17 points.

In the day's other match, Boca Juniors continued to struggle with at 3-3 draw at La Bombonera against Tigre. Boca has only 11 points and is far off the pace at the halfway point of the season. Tigre has 12 points.

Velez, which finished second in the Apertura championship, rallied for a valuable point on a second-half injury-time goal by Victor Zapata. Ivan Moreno y Fabianesi put Colon ahead in the 66th minute.

Estudiantes were also fortunate to get a draw. The difference came on an own-goal by Olimpo's Marcelo Mosset. Diego Galvan and Nestor Bareiro scored for Olimpo and Gaston Fernandez had Estudiantes' only goal.

Veron was ruled out of the match after injuring his left ankle in practice on Saturday.

Clemente Rodriguez scored in the 78th minute to help Boca Juniors rally for a draw with Tigre. Nicolas Colazo and Juan Roman Riquelme also found the net for Boca. Denis Stracqualursi scored all three goals for Tigre.

Arsenal and Banfield play on Monday.

The Clausura championship is very close at the midway point of the season with at least half of the 20 teams in contention.

River leads with 19 points followed by Velez with 18. Godoy Cruz, Olimpo and Estudiantes each have 17, Racing Club has 16 and San Lorenzo, Lanus and Argentinos Juniors are on 15. Colon has 14.