Chiqui Pérez’s Revelations: The Unsanctioned Penalty that Changed River vs Belgrano Promotion Game

Chiqui Pérez celebrates the penalty saved by Juan Carlos Olave against Pavone in the Promotion against River in 2011 (@fotobairesarg)

The Promotion between River Plate and Belgrano in the 2011 season was historic because it was the relegation of one of the largest teams in South America. El Millonario was relegated to B Nacional after losing the first leg in Córdoba 2-0 and drawing in the rematch at the Monumental 1-1.

Despite having a sporting advantage, the team led by Juan José López lost the series against Pirata without any attenuation, leaving that June 26 as a dark day in the history of Núñez’s team.

Almost 13 years later, people continue to talk about this “final”, although this time it was due to a strong confession made by one of the main actors. This is Claudio Pérez, who referred to a clear penalty that he committed against forward Leandro Caruso and that referee Sergio Pezzotta ignored.

Unsanctioned penalty by Chiqui Pérez against Caruso in River vs Belgrano for the 2011 promotion

It is worth remembering that if the judge sanctioned this maximum penalty it would have given Millonario the opportunity to go 2-0 in the first half, since they won with both from Mariano Pavone. Furthermore, Chiqui was reprimanded, so one more yellow card would have expelled him from the game.

“I was light years away from the ball. At that moment it seemed like I was close, but I was light years away. To this day I don’t know how he didn’t collect it. It’s one thing to see it on TV or the cameras, but another thing is to see it there in person that you’re going a mile an hour. It is a thousandth of a second that you have to make a decision,” confessed the former Boca Juniors defender.

“I wore it very much and my knee hurt, at that moment it hurt a lot. When I hit him, I stopped and saw Pezzotta pointing to the corner. I acted stupid as if to say: ‘Why is he throwing himself away?’” He added in an interview with Fox Sports, the former footballer who retired a few months ago after a 20-year professional career.

Chiqui Pérez and Carlos Bianchi in Boca Juniors

It is not the first time that Claudio Pérez surprises with his statements. In April 2023, he made strong revelations about Bianchi’s last step in Boca. Although Xeneize reached the quarterfinals of the Copa Libertadores in 2013 (they were eliminated in a penalty shootout by Newell’s in Rosario), the Virrey’s last cycle at the head of the team left a disappointment. One of the reinforcements that the historic DT requested from the leadership for that campaign at the time was Chiqui, who revealed intimacies from that time.

The former defender questioned the coaching staff that surrounded the emblematic coach and assured that the coach never found the team and the way of playing that he intended. “Boca has to have a coach with a huge career and field assistants with names, because you are talking about Boca, a world where they are all figures and there are egos. Carlos’s assistants were very good people, but in my opinion it was not their time to be in Boca. “There they could be leaders of the group in other B Nacional clubs, as they were,” was the sentence signed on the Boca de Selección program (Radio Del Plata) by the former defender, in reference to José María Castro and Marcelo Herrera, Bianchi’s assistants at that time.

Later, he expanded: “I can say that a good team was not put together. Bianchi never found the team and the way of playing that he wanted. The coaches put the dolls on the field and we are the dolls who respond. When things don’t work out, they will always blame the coach.” And he confided: “Some leaders wanted Carlos, others did not.”

When Chiqui was asked if it was true that a former teammate of his had scolded Bianchi with the term “old gagá,” he clarified: “I didn’t hear anyone say that to him. If someone had done it, he must have had a lot of personality because it was disrespectful to a person who won everything in Boca.” Meanwhile, he admitted that he had some differences with Bianchi typical of the substitution to which he subjected him at a certain point: “When the player does not play, the coach is always to blame. I always saw him the same, from the first day until he left. Don’t worry, he never raised his voice, he always spoke well and if he had to tell you something, he told you. He was a good person to me and he fulfilled my dream of playing with the shirt of which I am a fan.”

Finally, he drew a parallel between the glorious era of Bianchi in Boca and that of Marcelo Gallardo in River: “He was the best coach in history and with what Gallardo did they are both there. Bianchi was the best because of the type of players he had, they were players who worked to win the games. Gallardo equaled him a little, but I think he reached half of what Bianchi’s Boca was.”

COULD BIANCHI HAVE CATCHED MOUTH NOW?

“The coach has to surround himself well with those around him. There are many young technicians who are taking over teams as heads and others are making their first weapons as field assistants. If Carlos had taken over Boca, he would have had to surround himself with young people with experience because we are talking about Boca, not any club.”

2024-05-24 00:52:00
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