The Superclasico Preview: River vs Boca

Argentine football is known worldwide for its capacity to produce talents of enormous quality and for the passion (sometimes exaggerated) with which each game is lived by both fans and the media, turning the sport into something enormously important across the nation. There are matches that paralyze an entire city, such as the case of Rosario with a Newells-Rosario Central, Avellaneda with Independiente-Racing, or La Plata with Estudiantes-Gimnasia, to name a few. However, none of them reaches the Superclasico level: River Plate-Boca Juniors.

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This rivalry transcends Argentina and is recognized worldwide and this Sunday, May 7^th, there will be a new edition of one of the most important matches on the planet. The difference seen in the standings of the Argentine league (16 points of separation and a difference of 12 places) suggests that River is the favourite, but a game of this nature is usually a different match that distances itself from the moment that each team is living.

Despite this, the reality is that it seems that the team coached by Martin Demichelis has a double face: one in the Argentine tournament and another in the Copa Libertadores. In the local championship, River is leading the league with 11 wins and one draw in 14 games played, being the highest-scoring team in the league (25 goals) and the second with the fewest goals conceded (6). In fact, this last statistic is striking since in the international tournament, they have conceded 10 goals in only 3 games, maintaining a record of one win and two losses.

After five consecutive victories in all competitions that began against Huracan and ended against Independiente, Demichelis’s side comes from a draw against Atlético Tucumán and a tough 5-1 defeat against Fluminense, before hosting Boca. Additionally, Paradela was sent off in the last league match and therefore will not be able to participate in the match against Almiron’s team.

For its part, Boca have had a somewhat turbulent last month that led to the departure of Hugo Ibarra and the arrival of Jorge Almiron as manager, who has had a somewhat irregular start with the xeneize club although with a tendency to improve. They just had a victory against Racing that, despite not being in a good moment, is a difficult rival that Almiron’s team managed to overcome. The new manager is still trying to find a starting eleven that will give him guarantees and that plays a role as well.

In this search, he has tried some tactical changes such as placing Advincula as a right midfielder, with Marcelo Weigandt as a full back, an idea that has given the Peruvian more freedom to take advantage of his physicality mainly in the attacking side of things, as it was witnessed against Racing.

During the last training session, physical tests were carried out on Darío Benedetto and Frank Fabra, both of whom are beginning the recovery phase of their respective injuries, to see if they can be part of the squad for the match against River. On the other hand, Luca Langoni, who seemed to be ready to rejoin the group, suffered from his injury and seems to be a safe casualty for Sunday’s game.

It is going to be a very interesting match, and while River Plate start off as the favourites for this Superclasico, no one should cast Boca aside in this type of context.