Meetings between River Plate and Boca Juniors are never friendly but importantly they do generate a lot of money and so the clubs sponsor, BBVA did not want to pass up the opportunity of organising a fixture in the international break. With key players missing from both sides, the Estadio Mario Alberto Kempes in Córdoba hosted the clash, where both managers fielded mixed starting elevens of youngsters and squad players.
Despite being a friendly, the match turned out like many of the recent superclásicos, where moments of quality were few and far between and hefty challenges were the order of the day. River took the lead after just seven minutes, with one of the genuine passages of excellence in an otherwise scrappy match. Talented youngster, Leandro Vega began the move and after a quick exchange between Lucho González and Leonardo Pisculichi, the experienced midfielder slotted the ball past Guillermo Sara with the outside of his boot.
Boca almost found an equaliser when Lisandro Magallán headed against the crossbar and perhaps could have had a penalty given that in the process he was flattened by the flailing Julio Chiarini.However, River escaped and shortly after Boca’s evening got worse when Fabián Monzón was shown a red card for a foolish hack at Rodrigo Mora’s ankles.
Rodolfo Arruabarrena’s side competed well with the man disadvantage but were unable to find an equaliser and so River celebrated another recent superclásico victory and lifted the ridiculous Copa BBVA.
