Ten questions and answers left by the superclassic

Yes. Small and controversial, but penal in the end. Agustin Sandezwho had entered a few minutes before, wanted to anticipate Pablo Solari but the River player stretched out his leg before looking for the ball and the Boca winger, in his attempt to reject, grazed the rival striker’s leg. It’s not a huge penalty but yes collectible since the contact existed despite the claim of the xeneizes players.

Wrong. Beyond having succeeded in the final penalty, the judge’s performance was quite weak in disciplinary matters. Severe at the beginning of the match and permissive especially in the final stage. That high bar that he set in the first moments of the superclassic ended up conditioning him: he should have kicked out some players and he didn’t. Enzo Díaz and Milton Casco, for both violations against Villa when they were already reprimanded, had to be sent off. The same as Alan Varela for a blow to Nacho Fernández when he already had a yellow card. And not to mention Nicolás Figal for stomping on Beltrán. In that last play, Herrera could not have seen it, but the fourth official and one of the assistants were very close to that action.

Immediately after Borja took the penalty and almost all of River rushed out behind the Colombian to celebrate, Agustín Palavecino yelled the goal in the face of Nicolás Figal, who during the week had said the phrase “go play a good game at the Gallinero”. The one who first appeared to reproach him for the outburst at the wheel of River was Chiquito Romero. Immediately afterwards, the rest of the Boca players, seeing what was happening, went up in smoke to Palavecino and there the riot broke out, with players coming on from the substitute bench, such as Exequiel Centurión and Elías Gómez. in River or Vázquez and Varela on the Boca side. There were some blows, slaps from Varela to Enzo Díaz and from Elías Gómez to Merentiel that aggravated the situation and the incident turned into a scandal.

There were several who had active participation in the brawl. On River’s side they saw the red Palavecino (he was playing) and Centurión and Elías Gómez (they were substitutes). The first for the incitement with his celebration and the other two for distributing blows. On Boca’s side, those expelled were Merentiel, Valentini and Equi Fernández, all for assaults. In addition, Jorge Almirón, the DT who was already reprimanded, was also expelled. Others should have been fired and were saved, in the case of Alan Varela.

They were 87 minutes into the game when Almirón made two changes: Rolón for Medina and Sández for Barco. Name changes but in the same position. Four minutes later, the recently entered left-back would commit Solari’s penalty, which Borja translated into the final 1-0. The DT of Boca did not speak in a conference but Colo’s departure could be due to some physical fatigue from the kid since Solari, fresher because he had entered 15′ into the plugin, was complicating River’s attack on the right wing. Almirón perhaps sought not to suffer around with the entry of Sández, who, paradoxically, was responsible for the penalty.

As soon as Herrera whistled the penalty for River, the Colombian striker who had entered ten minutes earlier for Esequiel Barco walked slowly and grabbed the ball to take charge of the execution. Palavecino tried to distract the Boca players by taking the ball from Borja but number 9 was in charge of kicking. Without Beltrán and Barco already on the field, both replaced, the other footballer designated for penalties is the Colombian, Faced with pressure, he kicked with great serenity and put the ball close to the left post of a Romero who dived to the other post.

The goalkeeper was the only member of the Boca squad who spoke after the superclassic. He questioned the penalty taken by Herrera but the title he left behind was when he was asked about the incidents at the end of the game. “I told Palavecino and other boys from River to their faces… They, with the previous coach, managed to get all of soccer to respect them, but not only because they won games or won titles, but because of their behavior on and off the pitch. They disrespected us. Now this boy ignored that, instead of going to celebrate the goal with his teammates and Borja at the corner, he yelled the goal in the face of my defenders… I first thought he was yelling it with his people, but no, he was looking down, that’s why he generated our reaction. I reacted well, he ran out and grabbed him by the waist and asked him why he was doing that… And then my teammates thought I was going to fight and they came after me, the same with the River players.”

Among several topics that he touched on after the victory, in his first superclassic as River coach, Demichelis answered the question about what Figal had said during the week: “We are going to play a good game at the Gallinero.” The DT replied: “To answer you more directly, tell me who spoke. I’m going to tell you: for many it was surely a Chicana, for me she spoke with a lot of respect. Do you know why? Because He said that ‘we were going to win in Chile and we were going to have a good match at the Gallinero’. They didn’t even play a good game, and then they disrespected one of the most wonderful stadiums in the world, to which every time it is played at home about 85 thousand people come. There it was a lack of respect. It is the largest stadium in South America at club level. He didn’t say he came to win, but to play a good game.”

In Boca, the only one who spoke about the squad was Chiquito Romero. Jorge Almirón withdrew from the Monumental without making a statement but made a quite explicit gesture when he was asked about the penalty taken by Herrera as he left. The one who did speak later was Raúl Cascini, a member of the Boca Football Council who railed against arbitration. “The conclusions are clear, we are tired of the fact that every time we go to that field we feel harmed. Let’s remember that time that of Rojo (NdeR: the last time in the Monumental they expelled the defender at the start of the game), today the same. Also the players who did not send off River, for example Casco, who hit Villa and did not reprimand him, played the entire game for free; with Enzo Pérez he fouled backwards and did not want to throw him out when he fouled Advíncula; that of (Enzo) Díaz, who as soon as the second half started kicked Villa next to the corner flag, was expulsion”. He was the singing voice of Boca at the time of complaints.

With this victory in the superclassic, River establishes itself as the leader of the championship, with 37 points in the 15 dates played and with a nine difference with San Lorenzo, who will play this Monday. Boca, with the defeat, was 19 points behind the leader, in 13th place with 18 units.