River Plate suffered a severe setback in the first leg of the Copa Libertadores against Palmeiras, on the Independiente court, where the Brazilian team, which is undefeated in the competition, beat it 3-0, exploiting the counterattacks available to the maximum throughout the meeting.
In fact, the paulistas had only one goal option in the first half, and it was not generated by their game, clearly conservative in that phase of the game, but by an error by goalkeeper Franco Armani, who did not trust his teammate Robert Rojas and rejected with his feet a center that belonged to the Paraguayan defender, leaving the ball served to Rony, who finished crossed and after a very fine deflection got against the right post.
That was the first symptom of a night that was going to be of continuous suffering for those led by Marcelo Gallardo, who seemed to be repeating the superclassic last Saturday, when they dominated Boca Juniors with possession of the ball but they failed to capture that superiority In the net.
In the same way, River continued to handle the ball after that Brazilian conquest that arrived just before half an hour of an initial stage that left the “millionaires” a great feeling of injustice for what they had done with their game and what which actually indicated the marker.
But that distrust that Armani seemed to manifest towards Rojas was verified in the facts just beginning the second period, when the central defender seemed to have forgotten the advice that Gallardo gave him after the 2-2 against Boca, when he recommended “breaking his ankles” in that case to Carlos Tevez, who turned and faced the goal to enable Sebastián Villa, who made the final tie in the superclassic.
This time, like that one, Rojas was passive in the brand and allowed Luiz Adriano to make him a kind of basketball pick and roll, putting himself on his back and turning on the body of the Paraguayan to start unopposed in search of the River Plate goal and beat Armani with a low shot that entered between the legs of the goalkeeper.
The second blow hurt River a lot, and it was difficult for him to assimilate it, to the point that it seemed “groggy” for several minutes, and curiously a “chachereada” by Gabriel Menino, lowering a ball that arrived by elevation with the heel, ended up being definitely productive for the aspirations of those led by the Portuguese Abel Ferreira.
It is that this action caused the anger of several riverplatenses footballers, starting with Enzo Pérez, but his did not go beyond a recrimination, while the less experienced Jorge Carrascal went to do justice on his “own foot” with a double kick with right and left that forced the referee Leodán González to expel him.
The quarter of an hour of the second half was still not played and that “fever” of the Colombian was lethal for his team, which to add insult to injury received the third goal due to a header from the Uruguayan left-back Matías Viña that led Armani to look for the ball at the bottom of his bow for the third time in the dark, and not just because of the rain; night of Avellaneda.
With such a difference and the double appreciation of the away goal, River had to go all or nothing and was exposed to the cons of the Brazilians, but he had no other choice, because lifting such a burden within a week in São Paulo will require, this Yes, of a true soccer feat, although for a Gallardo team anything is possible.
The end left the feeling that Palmeiras, who in the Brasileirao is not one of the best, since he is sixth, 12 points behind the leader San Pablo, ended up managing the game despite playing against, because the attacks of River, who lost 3-0 for the first time at home (he had fallen by the same score at the start of the tournament against Liga de Quito, but in Ecuador), he was powerless to at least reduce the disadvantage.
The “millionaire” tried, but there was no case, nothing came to River, and the dream of playing another final of Libertadores in the Maracaná as last year, to take revenge for that defeat with Flamengo, today was quite diffuse. Too much maybe.
.
