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ESRiver remains strong and wins at home The team managed by Martín Demichelis beat Fluminense 2-0 in the CONMEBOL Libertadores, with goals from Lucas Beltrán and Esequiel Barco, taking a key step toward qualifying for the Round of 16.
The match started off with River pressing up and having a scoring chance in the first minutes, which culminated in Pablo Solari scoring a goal that was disallowed due to offside following VAR review. Then, River dominated the game: Andrés Herrera, Nacho Fernández and Nicolás De La Cruz struck medium-range shots, while Franco Armani made a good save on a shot by André from outside the box. The scoring chances kept coming, and the clearest once was a header from Lucas Beltrán that miraculously missed the goal.
The team managed by Demichelis went all out, with things going smoothly for the defense, but fell short of taking the well-deserved lead in the first half. The Brazilian team had a chance to score toward the end, when Guga ran upfield and struck a left-footed shot that deflected off Armani's right goalpost.
River went into the second half with the same mindset and, before the 48th minute, Solari struck a right-footed shot from outside the box, which went just wide of the goal. On the next opportunity, Solari made an overlapping run and struck a low on-target cross for Beltrán to tap the ball into the goal and give River the well-deserved lead. River didn’t stop and Herrera, once again, tried to score from outside the box, but his shot went just wide.
River controlled the rest of the game and could have even scored another goal; in the defense, Armani reacted well when put to the test. On the final chance, Esequiel Barco was downed on his way upfield and took the penalty to set the score at 2-0. Thus, River claimed three key points, getting closer to Round-of-16 qualification. River’s last CONMEBOL Libertadores match will be against The Strongest, on June 27th, at the Mâs Monumental stadium. Regarding the local tournament, River will play away against Banfield, next Monday.
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