River wins Boca in the first semifinal of the Copa Libertadores

[KEPY™]

In Argentine soccer, the matches start long before the referee has it. This Tuesday, six hours after the start of the superclass for the semifinals of the Copa Libertadores, the people in charge of opening the Monumental arrived at the gates of the stadium and found what in the jargon of animism is usually called "work": fans Boca had left a team shirt with burning candles, as if that invocation of the spirits could help his team. It was then that River employees advised themselves to counteract this esoteric call.
However, at the end of the game near midnight, who made that attempt at black magic - something more common than is believed - will surely not have boasted. River demonstrated why since 2014 he won seven international titles and on Tuesday he overcame his classic rival 2-0. The goals of Rafael Santos Borré, after a penalty indicated by the VAR, and Ignacio Fernández, one at each time, seem to give an interesting advantage for the rematch to the current champion of the Libertadores, which in December last year was consecrated just before Boca in Madrid.
The visiting players, with Carlos Tevez in the lead, gestured and complained against the Brazilian referee Raphael Claus, who at the last minute, again at the request of the VAR, expelled the visiting midfielder Nicolás Capaldo. The winner of the Argentine superclassic - the rematch will be on Tuesday 22 in the Bombonera - will play the final of the Cup against the winner of the Brazilians Gremio-Flamengo, who on Wednesday will face for the first semifinal in Porto Alegre.
Even with the relative that may be the first game of a 180-minute series, River celebrated 2-0 as the victories against the top rival are celebrated: without thinking about tomorrow. In the middle was a party that paralyzed a part of Buenos Aires: 1,700 policemen and an incessant sound of sirens mounted a security drill so that the scandal of last year's final in the Monumental was not repeated, when a fan attack of River Boca players frustrated the game that would end in Madrid.
Boca was supposed to go out to protect his arc, according to his greatest virtue in recent games, but Borre's goal after 7 minutes confirmed again that football is the sport of betrayed forecasts. The decision of the Brazilian referee was through a call from the VAR, long seconds after the -existing- violation of Emanuel More. Also the Argentine superclassic is a tradition of more than 100 years that must adapt to the misunderstood modern times.
With the same intensity in the field of play as in the stands, the party that followed justified the small fortune that the fans paid for an entry into an Argentina in crisis. Boca, at a disadvantage, was halfway to its original plan and tried to advance a few meters but without too much conviction, while River went on to play with less despair to convert and always maintained control.
The Argentine classic showed the validity of Enzo Pérez, a veteran chieftain who could continue playing in the European leagues but chooses to do so in the club he is a fan of. At the time of his superiority, River had more goal situations, although the occasion that Capaldo wasted, at the end of the first half, was one of those that viewers will have had to see several times to convince himself that it was not a goal.
In that context of sharp legs and minimal spaces, River's second goal -converted by Fernández- was not only fair: he also had the grace of who is capable of producing beauty in the middle of the symbolic war of a superclassic.
The rematch will be on Tuesday 22, with a challenge: that the 90 minutes are played in peace. The last two remakes of superclassical series by Libertadores ended in scandal. To the pepper gas thrown by Boca fans to the players of River in the Bombonera, for the knockout stages of the 2015 Cup, last year they added the stones that River supporters threw to the Boca players in the vicinity of the Monumental .
On Tuesday, before the game, television mobiles concentrated for hours at the place of the 2018 attack, on the corner between Libertador, Monroe and Lidoro Quinteros, but this time the bus that moved the Boca players passed without problems. If the fans of River could not celebrate then the title that their team would end up winning in Madrid, this Tuesday was a small retaliation. Although there is still just the revenge