Buenos Aires, Apr 1: Boca Juniors drew 1-1 against Independiente on Sunday in round seven of matches in Argentina's top division, extending the power club's poor start to the season.
Archrivals River Plate could only draw 0-0 against Velez Sarsfield on Saturday, but is in fourth and within three points of leader Lanus, which plays Monday against Quilmes.
Newell's Old Boys moved into second, level on points with Lanus after defeating San Lorenzo 1-0 while Godoy Cruz is third after its 3-2 win over San Martin.
Boca goalkeeper Agustin Orion saved a Daniel Montenegro penalty low to his right in the 12th minute and Boca went down to ten men four minutes later when Christian Cellay was sent off for a bad foul.
Despite that, Santiago Silva headed in to give Boca the lead six minutes before halftime.
Independiente's Claudio Morel leveled the scores with a left foot shot in the 63th and Orion had to make a series of saves to keep his side in the game.
The result leaves Boca in 16th place after seven rounds of matches, when the preseason expectation was that returning coach Carlos Bianchi would have them challenging for the title.
River against Velez was a tight affair played out mainly in the midfield. River had the better opportunities, but couldn't put any of them away.
Newell's winner against San Lorenzo came from Maximiliano Rodriguez in the 37th.
Godoy Cruz got second-half goals from David Ramirez and Mauro Obolo to come from behind and defeat San Martin.
Obolo had opened the scoring in the 10th, before an own goal from Nicolas Sanchez in the 20th and a goal 12 minutes later from Damian Ledesma swung the game in San Martin's favor.
In Sunday's other game, Rafaela won 1-0 against Union, with Uruguayan Diego Vera scoring the goal in the 31st.
In Saturday's other games, Juan Anangono scored in the 50th to help Argentinos Juniors to a 1-0 win over All Boys and Racing defeated Estudiantes 1-0, with Javier Campora scoring in the 88th.
In Friday games, Colon won 3-2 against Tigre and Belgrano and Arsenal drew 1-1.
