Buenos Aires (AP) – River Plate prolonged his party under a flood. A week after his victory over Boca Juniors, Marcelo Gallardo’s team thrashed Vélez Sarsfield 4-1 on Sunday in the Monumental and displaced independent of the second place in zone B, at the close of the regular phase of the Argentine Opening Tournament.
In eighths, the “Millionaire” will receive Central Barracas. His triumph over the already eliminated Vélez, added to the previous equality of Boca against Tigre, determined that only a superclassic can be given in case both reach the final. If River failed to beat the “Fortín”, the two largest in Argentine football could have collided in the quarterfinals.
The “Xeneize”, already without the dismissed Fernando Gago as a coach, matched 1-1 at home with Tigre and could not recover the top of Zone A, which was held by Argentinos Juniors. Boca will now be measured with Lanús in La Bombonera.
The remaining clashes of eighths will be the following: Argentinos-Institute, San Lorenzo-Tigre, Racing-Platense, Rosario Central-Studers, Hurricane-Riestra and Independiente-Independiente Rivadavia.
The Playoffs phase will be played to the single match, with the best located team officiating at each key, with the exception of the final, which will be played in neutral terrain.
A monumental stadium, filled with about 85 thousand spectators, celebrated a new victory of the “Muñeco” Gallardo over his colleague Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Boca coach in the mythical final of the 2018 Libertadores Copa Libertadores won by River in Madrid.
Of that champion team, in front of Vélez were on the court Franco Armani, Milton Casco, Enzo Pérez and Ignacio Fernández.
Sebastián Driussi, at 14 minutes, Facundo Colidio, at 28, “Nacho” Fernández, at 33, and the Colombian Miguel Borja of penalty in a discount time, shaped the third consecutive victory in the River contest, who will visit Barcelona in Guayaquil for the Libertadores on Thursday.
For Vélez, who will receive Olimpia on Thursday for the maximum continental competition, the Juvenile Maher Carrizo discounted, at 37.
The “Millionaire” played a first half at a high level, embodied on the scoreboard with Driussi turning for the fourth consecutive game, Colidio scoring a goal after a great individual play and Fernández solving with quality after an error by the Uruguayan goalkeeper Randall Rodríguez. On the end, the substitute Borja had to kick twice from the 12 steps (the visiting goalkeeper advanced when covering the first execution) to round the win.
In the town of Victoria, Boca could not recover from the hard fall the previous date against River and did not go from a pale equality in one with a tiger that condemned him to second place in his area.
With Mariano Herron once again as an interim coach (the name of the future coach is not yet known), the “Xeneize” took advantage with a goal from Kevin Zenón, at 21.
The “Matador” put justice on the scoreboard with some of Lorenzo Scipioni at the exit of a corner, on the closure of the first 45 minutes.
In the second stage, the Auriazul team put back on the scoreboard with a goal against Diego Sosa, ultimately canceled after the intervention of VAR by hand in the previous play of Tomás Belmonte.
Herron opted to include Alan Velasco, who had been relegated in recent months by Gago, but the former Dallas again disappointed. In the complement, the interim coach surprised to replace the Uruguayan Miguel Merentiel for Lucas Janson, who had only played a few minutes in the year and is not a natural center striker.
“A week passed (from the defeat with River), we have to get ahead. Out champion? We are going to try to get it,” said Merentiel, again the only head striker in the “Xeneize” in the face of the injuries of his compatriot Edinson Cavani and Milton Giménez.
Also at the close of the 16th. Date, Platense fell agedly 1-0 in La Plata against Gymnastics and Fencing, meanwhile, with a goal from Ecuadorian Ayrton Preciado, Aldosivi thrashed San Martín de San Juan 3-0 at home, in duel between teams threatened by the descent.
