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Boca Leads Argentina Clausura

Boca Juniors is back in its rightful place at the head of the Clausura Championship with a Sunday victory over Arsenal. River Plate only drew a tie with San Lorenzo handing Boca the lead. Boca, who have 31 points from 15 games, have a two-point lead over River with four games to play after former Villareal striker Martin Palermo headed the only goal in the 73rd minute.

River, who had defender Cristian Tula sent off for a second offence in the 57th minute, were outplayed by San Lorenzo but escaped with a point thanks to goalkeeper German Lux. "We played badly and we were glad for a draw," said River coach Daniel Passarella. "We have to improve on a number of fronts if we want to keep fighting for the championship."Today, we couldn`t put together two passes in a row."

Newell`s Old Boys, who have 28 points, moved into third place after beating Instituto 2-1 away, overtaking Lanus and Gimnasia-Jujuy, who both lost at home. Lanus went down 2-0 to archrivals Banfield and Gimnasia suffered a shock 1-0 defeat against bottom-of-the-table Racing Club, who had won only one of their 14 previous games.