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It was farewell to San Martin, who ended their two year stay in the Argentine first division, following a 3-1 defeat by River Plate.
The home side took the lead in the 13th minute as Carlos Luna’s left wing cross found Leone Vangioni unmarked.
River doubled their lead a little over ten minutes later when Ariel Rojas’ corner was headed downwards by Jonatan Maidana towards Carlos Sanchez, who bundled the ball into the net.
Replays suggested that he’d been offside.
San Martin got themselves back into contention just before half-time through Gaston Caprari.
The away sides hopes of a positive result dissipated drastically when Damian Ledesma was issued with a straight red card.
He barged into the referee after he’d awarded a free kick for Reinaldo Alderete’s challenge on River midfielder Manuel Lanzini.
And San Martin’s fate was sealed in the 88th minute when Juan Manuel Iturbe raced onto a ball over the top to score.
Iturbe was bodychecked by Alderete’s flailing arm in injury-time.
Iturbe writhed around in agony and tried to get the home crowd behind him, but it provoked an angry reaction from San Martin goalkeeper Luis Ardente.
Both sides came together in a mass scuffle as tempers flared.
So the referee blew the whistle early, cutting short four minutes of injury-time.
Iturbe had to be shepherded off the pitch by some riot police.
Relegation in Argentina is determined by a table of teams’ average points over three seasons, which meant San Martin went down despite finishing in the top half of the “Final” championship standings.
