Soccer-Central's Coudet 14th coach to leave Argentine top-flight club this season

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Rosario Central's league match at Belgrano on Sunday will be coach Eduardo Coudet's last in charge after he quit following Thursday's Copa Argentina final loss to River Plate.

Coudet, whose side lost 4-3 after leading 3-2 going into the final half hour of the match in Cordoba, will be the 14th coach to leave a club in the 30-team first division since the beginning of the season four months ago.

"I've told the directors and the players that I've decided to step aside," Coudet, whose club lost a third successive Copa Argentina final and second under his guidance, said on Friday.

"We've had two good years' work I say sorry to the (Central) fans that we couldn't get a title," he added.

"We played a great match against great rivals like River, that's all I can say. When we looked more likely to go 4-2 up, they turned the match around."

River coach Marcelo Gallardo has amassed six trophies in his two and half years in charge including the regional Copa Libertadores in 2015 and Copa Sudamericana in 2014.

Victory in the knockout competition gave River a ticket to next year's Libertadores. (Reporting by Luis Ampuero; Writing by Rex Gowar, editing by Ed Osmond)