Boca organized a party against River in La Bombonera and qualified for Libertadores 2026
Mouth beat him 2 to 0 River in The Bombonera and celebrated twice: he got a new edition of the Superclassicvalid for the 15th date of Closing Tournament 2025and qualified for the next edition of the CONMEBOL Libertadores, a matter in which he left his lifelong rival on the brink of the abyss. He Zeballos Monkey He was the great figure of the party, with goal and assist.
One of the most common clichés in football is that, in the classics, it does not matter how the teams arrive.
But this Sunday, at the Alberto J. Armando Stadium, the opposite happened: the team Claudio Ubedaleader of Zone A, put together a real party with his people, won again in the Superclásico after a couple of defeats and made sure to return to play in the group stage of the continental competition after two absences.
For the cast of Marcelo Gallardoquite the opposite: over rained, wet. To numerically summarize the present of Núñez’s team, it is enough to say that They lost 8 of their last 11 gamesin which they register two cup eliminations.
Exequiel Zeballos and Miguel Merentiel were the authors of the goals in La Bombonera, scoring goals in key moments, defining the match with hits in pivotal sections of an afternoon that seemed eternal to the visit.
The great expectation that had been generated in the week, because it was the most important match in Argentine football but enhanced by the importance it had in the final stretch of the year, with both teams vying for qualification to the next CONMEBOL Libertadores, did not correspond to what both teams came out to show on the playing field.
Without taking risks, Xeneize and Millonario seemed take care of yourself from the first minute. The visit, with long shots from Salas and Castaño, tested Marchesín, something similar to what Zeballos did with Armani. Boca and River, then, shared possession of the ball and practically did not worry the rival goalkeepers.
In fact, the most interesting thing about the match was in the search to win the midfield and in the friction: the initial stage ended with three yellow cards, Martínez Quarta and Acuña on one side and Di Lollo on the other, all three reaching the fifth yellow card and being left out of the last date.
But when it seemed that the initial stage was heading towards a silent result, something logical given what was shown on the playing field, the opening of the scoring arrived. To the 46 minutesLautaro Blanco sent a head-on shot, Milton Giménez fought in the air with Paulo Díaz and the ball went to Exequiel Zeballos.
El Changuito, with space, faced Lautaro Rivero and finished entering the area. Franco Armani beat him at first, but Zeballos grabbed the rebound and opened the scoring. All of River went up in smoke to Nicolás Ramírez complaining about an alleged foul by Giménez on Díaz, but neither the referee nor the VAR considered it an infraction and the first half ended 1-0 in favor of the local team.
And if scoring a goal before halftime is key, doing so upon return is just as important. But if both things happen, it’s kind of a knockout blow.
Thus, in the first of the complement the Xeneize stabbed the Millionaire with a dagger: The ball was left to Zeballos in the middle of the field, Changuito went all the way, beat Martínez Quarta and Portillo and sent a pass to the middle for Merentiel to finish with the goal at his mercy..
Great goal, 2-0 and an absolute success for Gallardo’s team, who renewed their contract for one year this week. From there, it was all blue and yellow: First Armani went wrong and far away, touched the ball with his hand and earned a warning.
Although there is only one way to explain why it was not beaten in La Bombonera: the lack of effectiveness of Milton Giménez. The Boca striker had five very clear chances in the area! In the first he could not define, while Armani won the personal duel after a headbutt and in a one-on-one.
Boca took advantage of the momentum and River did not stand up, but around the half-hour mark the visit had a couple of approaches: Montiel could not define and Borja ended up earning the yellow card for a foul on Costa, very solid throughout the 90 minutes, in a clear example of what the game was for the Millonario.
The local team was closer than ever to third when Ramírez took a penalty from Armani on Giménez, but after a long wait the obvious rectification came: in reality the forward, the only one who was out of tune in Ubeda’s team, took the goalkeeper’s place.
River tried to push and was about to discountbut Galarza missed an incredible goal below the goal and Salas was centimeters away from scoring it with a great shot, and on the other side Boca also made a price. In the end, in a match that had minutes for several players who had not been having many minutes, such as Ander Herrera, Toto Belmonte, Milton Braida and Kevin Zenón, but not for Edinson Cavani, who stayed on the bench, the result was a deserved victory for Xeneize by 2 to 0.
After two years, Boca will once again play the group stage of the CONMEBOL Libertadores, a matter in which River was very complicated: Riestra and Argentinos Juniors can surpass it in the Annual Table, so it could fall to the South American zone.
Furthermore, regarding the Clausura,
