4-2: River comes back with a ‘double’ from Barco

River Plate showed his best face and something different Esequiel Boatwho scored a double, prevailed 4-2 against the Peruvian Sporting Cristal at the Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires, on the second day of Group D of Libertadores Cup.

Barco’s two goals, one from Uruguayan Nicolás De la Cruz and the rest from Pablo Solari gave the Argentine team a clear victory over a rival Peru who scored through Brazilian Ignacio and the Ecuadorian Washington Corozo.

With this result, River recovered from the first defeat against The Strongest in La Paz and is in third place behind the Bolivian team -with both 3 points and a goal difference- and the leader Fluminense with a total of six points that leave the last place for Sporting Cristal that closes the classification without units.

The match started evenly but in the 7th minute the visitors hit an accurate header after a free kick from Brazilian Ignacio to put the Celeste Machine ahead.

River reacted after this initial blow and ‘Nacho’ Fernández cornered the Peruvian visit and after Fernández’s own shot from outside the box in the 14th minute, they tied it in the 18th minute in a great header from Uruguayan Nicolás De la Cruz after a perfect cross from Enzo Díaz.

Boosting this spirit, River had two more options before the scoreline went in their favor in the 35th minute with some great play by Esequiel Barco who swung and took a low shot that beat Renato Solís’ resistance.

From that moment it looked like River, Argentina’s absolute tournament leader, would impose his law but three minutes later Enzo Díaz saw the red card after a difficult challenge on Washington Corozo that went with the goalkeeper which is Franco Armani. From the same game, Corozo executed the free kick with a shot that placed the ball in the top left corner of the millionaire’s goal.

In the second half, River quickly managed to lead the scoreboard again in the 52nd minute through Esequiel Barco’s double action that was favored by the rebound in the second attempt in an action that was validated by VAR. After almost nine minutes, Enzo Pérez released a perfect pass for Pablo Solari, who was defined by a beautiful chip to establish the final 4-2 result.

River’s next performance in this Group D of the Copa Libertadores is on Tuesday, May 2 against Fluminense as a visitor, while Sporting Cristal will be the home of The Strongest in Lima.