The Argentine River Plate qualified for the round of 16 of the Copa Libertadores by defeating the Bolivian The Strongest 2-0 (partial 1-0) this Tuesday in Buenos Aires, in a duel for Group D in which the millionaires were effective to get out of trouble.
Rodrigo Aliendro, at minute 12, and the Colombian Miguel Ángel Borja (88) scored the goals for the Millionaire’s triumph at the Monumental stadium, before some 83,000 spectators.Borja’s goal was number 39 in Conmebol competitions and left him as the second highest scorer in history, equaling Hernán Rodrigo López and only surpassed by the Ecuadorian Alberto Spencer.
39 – Against The Strongest, Miguel Borja 🇨🇴 caught up with Hernán Rodrigo López 🇺🇾 and became the second all-time top scorer in CONMEBOL tournaments, with 39 goals. Legend. pic.twitter.com/RkqnrzIREP
— OptaJavier (@OptaJavier) June 28, 2023
With this result, River agreed to the round of 16 together with the Brazilian Fluminense, while Sporting Cristal will play a playoff to stay alive but in the Copa Sudamericana, and The Strongest was left out of both competitions.
A victory that gave River Plate peace of mind
With the certainty that the victory gave them the classification without being aware of the other match, River went over the Bolivian field, with its proposal of high pressure on the rival start, handling in short spaces and a lot of dynamics in the middle of the field to try to find spaces.
Nicolás de la Cruz gave the warning with a right cross that Viscarra covered with effort, but The Strongest did not have time to hear the alarm, because seconds later the opening of the marking arrived, in an action in which De la Cruz received inside the area , and played backwards for the arrival of Aliendro, who hit his shot to the left corner.
River took the burden of scoring the first goal very early, and that allowed him to maintain control of the game with amplitude. About half an hour later, Tigre del Altiplano came out of the siege and easily reached the local area, first with a right corner from Triverio that Armani took out with his fingertips, then Isnaldo finished off just high, and then Chura tested with a bombing which required the intervention of the world champion archer.
Eventually River woke up from the ‘nap’ and returned to take the helm of the game, and to generate situations, in a second half in which little changed, in which it went in search of the second reassuring goal. From above he was close to increasing the home base with a header from Nacho Fernández that came out next to the left pipe, and then the same midfielder assisted Borja, who looked for the near post, but found a good response from Viscarra.
Millionaire’s second goal came almost by decantation, with an arrival that led to a series of rebounds, until Solari assisted and Borja pushed the ball into the net a meter from the goal to settle the duel at the end.
Thus, River found the necessary relief, after suffering several passages of the Cup, and getting a ticket for the section of the Cup in which the great candidates come into play.
After finishing the last day, Fluminense finished at the top of group D with 10 points, followed by River with the same score but worse goal difference. Sporting Cristal was third with 8 units, and The Strongest closed the table with 6 units.
SPORTS
with AFP
More sports news
#Miguel #Borja #helped #qualify #River #approached #Conmebol #record #video