Lanus celebrate in front of the disgruntled locals in El Monumental

Lanus comfortably defeated River Plate last night in El Monumental to reach the Copa Sudamericana Semi Finals, but more importantly qualify for the Copa Libertadores. The damaging 3-1 defeat prompted widespread anger, aimed towards outgoing President, Daniel Passarella and even called for the return of former players, David Trezeguet and Fernando Cavanaghi.

The River side of the first leg was difficult to break down but last night, minus the suspended, Eder Alvarez Balanta, Lanus cut through them with ease.

It took just 6 minutes to breach the River backline thanks to Diego Gonzalez’s quick thinking and even quicker feet redirecting Leandro Somoza’s shot past Marcelo Barovaro.

Once again, River looked rather disjointed and toothless and so it was no surprise after half an hour that the lead was doubled. Lucas Melano’s cross from the right managed to evade everyone and left Santiago Silva with the simplest of tap-ins.

River came closest to getting back into the game when Jonathan Fabrro’s freekick hit the crossbar but even after the break when they were pushing hard, River were impotent.

Victor Ayala made absolutely sure with 20 minutes remaining with the third and despite Teo Gutierrez’s late header, River limped to defeat.

The fans made their thoughts very clear and will have left Daniel Passarella in no doubt that he is making the right decision in stepping down as President.