Boca Juniors won 0-1 tonight against River Plate with a solitary goal from Colombian Sebastián Villa in a new edition of the Argentine soccer Superclásico, a duel valid for the seventh day of the Professional League Cup.
In an intense match played before more than 70,000 spectators at the Monumental stadium in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Núñez, Boca Juniors achieved a cathartic victory with an outstanding performance by goalkeeper Agustín Rossi.
With the victory Boca reached the leadership of Zone B with 14 units together with Estudiantes de La Platawhile River added its second setback in the competition to finish third in Zone A with 13 points, two behind the leader Racing Club.
The meeting had a first half with ample control of the premises that Julián Álvarez had his unbalanced player who had two clear options to open the scoring but who found goalkeeper Rossi as a great standard to keep the score clean.
Boca found himself tied up and unable to bet on Villa’s speed and the offensive reference of Darío Benedetto, who returned to play after three days without activity due to injury.
The duo of central markers of the visit made up of Marcos Rojo and the Peruvian Carlos Zambrano, plus his compatriot Luis Advíncula they suffered throughout the first stage the offensive vocation of River with Esequiel Barco as manager of the offensive actions of a local that was impatient for not being able to open the scoring.
In the plugin, Sebastián Battaglia had to rotate the substitute bench with the entry of Nicolás Figal and Luis Vázquez by Advíncula and Benedetto, and found a combination to bring danger to the goal defended by Franco Armani.
In the 52nd minute, an inaccuracy between Leandro González Pírez and Armani led to Villa stealing the ball, which, with a precise dribble managed to remove the presence of the rival goalkeeper and define with an empty goal.
River bet to look for the tie but again the figure of Agustín Rossi emerged to prevent the fall of his fence three times and the consequent tie in the scoreboardthe clearest were a free kick by Juan Fernando Quintero and a header by the admitted Palavecino that the Boca goalkeeper took over the crossbar.
The end determined the celebration of Boca that stringed together two consecutive wins as a visitor (the previous one against Estudiantes in La Plata) and the sadness of a River that accumulated its second defeat in the tournament.
The interzonal date also marked the Racing win 1-2 away against Independiente, Newell’s Old Boys win 0-1 away against Rosario Centraland the victories of Banfield and Tigre against Lanús (0-1) and Plantense (4-0), respectively in the classics of the South and North of Greater Buenos Aires.
Meanwhile, the remaining crosses of classic rivals ended in a draw: Colón and Unión from Santa Fe without goalslike the one from Buenos Aires between San Lorenzo and Huracán, while the one from La Plata between Gimnasia and Estudiantes finished 1-1.