Riquelme came down from his box after Boca’s defeat against River and visited the Xeneize locker room
Boca Juniors lost the Superclásico against River Plate by 2-0 and now all guns are focused on the rematch of the Copa Libertadores semi-final against Palmeiras this Thursday. With this message, Juan Román Riquelme came down as soon as judge Andrés Merlos whistled the end of the game, with a controversial performance together with the VAR, in charge of Héctor Paletta.
Just at the moment when Jorge Almirón began to talk to journalists at the press conference, the vice president and one of the greatest idols of Xeneize came down from his box at La Bombonera and went to the local locker room to chat with the team. The meeting lasted less than an hour and the message that Román sent was to lift their spirits.
Riquelme left the box and headed to the Boca locker room after the Superclásico
It is not normal for Juan Román Riquelme to make these types of decisions after matches. We will have to go back to the match against Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata at home, with Sebastián Battaglia as coach, on October 30, 2021, when the leader and idol took the players down from the bus and had a dialogue with the team after a 1-1 loss. 0.
At that time, the context was very different since the team had had a very bad performance and in just 72 hours a decisive match was going to be played against Argentinos Juniors in the semifinals of the Argentine Cup, which could or could not define the fate of the team. Xeneize in the next edition of the Copa Libertadores. Later, with Jorge Almirón as coach and after suffering a 4-0 defeat against Godoy Cruz in Mendoza, Román waited until dawn for them to arrive on their charter flight and had a hard talk.
This is how Riquelme left the Boca locker room after the defeat against River
This time the opposite happened. Although it was also a defeat that was not liked, because the substitute team that Jorge Almirón planted lacked football flight until the entry of some starters into the complement, Riquelme stressed on quickly channeling this fall, he insisted that they must raise their heads and that The real objective will be Thursday’s game in San Pablo against Palmeiras. This match will define, or not, Boca Juniors’ pass to a new Copa Libertadores final. To do this they must win, either in the regulation 90 minutes or on penalties, since in the first leg played last Thursday they tied 0-0 at La Bombonera.
“Defeat hurts. It’s a classic, we have to overcome this blow because on Thursday against Palmeiras we played everything. I played with a fresher team, since if the starters had played, perhaps we would have lost a player due to injury or wear and tear. In the second we had the possibilities and it couldn’t happen,” said Jorge Almirón, who had no qualms about complaining about the appointment of match judge Andrés Merlos.
“We came with history on their court in the last tournament. The referee appeared in photos this week wearing the River shirt. In the plays sometimes they disadvantage us and it hurts,” he attacked. And he added: ”It is very difficult when it appears everywhere that the referee is from River. It was a foul before the first goal and then the disallowed goal by (Edinson) Cavani was doubtful. I also take responsibility for the defeat. But like on River’s field, the referee hurt us again. We were left with a lot of anger and empty hands due to the wear and tear that was done.”
Boca will return to training tomorrow at 10 at the Ezeiza facility. On Tuesday they will do it in the same place, both practices will be on synthetic grass to adapt to the Palmeiras Allianz Park field. On Tuesday after lunch the team will travel to San Pablo. On Thursday at 9:30 p.m., Boca Juniors will face Palmeiras for the rematch of the semifinal series of the Copa Conmebol Libertadores de América.
2023-10-01 22:43:33
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