Coach Marcelo Gallardo broke out at the end of River Plate’s match against Vélez, for the first leg of the round of 16 in the Copa Libertadores, in which his team fell 1-0 with Lucas Janson scoring a penalty. The coach of the millionaire team was self-critical and recognized that they couldn’t do a worse game.
The Colombian ’10’ Juan Fernando Quintero entered for the second half, in which Vélez was very close to extending the advantage if it weren’t for goalkeeper Franco Armani and even the VAR, which ended up annulling a goal for offside.
“It was uncomfortable for us to play it,” was the first thing that Gallardo acknowledged, mentioning that they gave Vélez all the freedom after the goal at 15 minutes. “It was hard for us. We wanted to change in the ST to find a better quality of play with Juanfer and it didn’t work out. We gave Vélez space and the result could have been broader. We didn’t play a good game and the positive is the result. It’s a minimal advantage We have to improve a lot and it will be a different game on our court”.
The ‘Muñeco’ Gallardo mentioned that River was not on the court and that he will have to “improve a lot” to advance to the quarterfinals. “We don’t meet. When the team plays badly, there are not many explanations. We are aware of that. We cannot play worse than this. We will try to change the image,” he declared at the end of the series that was left open.
The second leg will be next Wednesday, July 6 at the Monumental stadium, starting at 7:30 pm, Colombian time.
