Champions Trophy: why are River and Banfield playing a tie-break and Boca waiting for the final?

Flat River AND Banfield They will be looking for a place in the T finalRofeo de Campeones 2020 against Boca when they meet this Wednesday in Córdoba, in what will be the first one-on-one of the Martin Demichelis.

The match will be played from 21:00 at the Mario Alberto Kempes stadium, will be broadcast live by ESPN Premium and TNT Sports, through the digital platforms Star+, Flow, DGO and Telecentro Play, and will be refereed by Facundo Tello, assisted by Ezequiel Brailovsky and Gabriel Chade, together with Silvio Trucco in VAR.

The new manager of River Plate, successor of Marcelo Gallardo, has the possibility of accessing a final against Boca after the two won by Millionaire in 2018 for the Argentine Super Cup and the Copa Libertadores.

because it is played

The Champions Trophy is a National Cup that pits the two champions of the year against each other and was not held in 2020 due to the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic in the seasonal calendar. The match will be defined by penalties in the event of a tie.

Boca, who await the final, have won both tournaments, the Super League Cup and the Diego Maradona Cup, which is why the AFA has organized a tie-break with the runners-up of both competitions in order not to leave a title vacant .

River were Boca’s runners-up in the 19-20 Super League which ended a week before the lockdown and Banfield lost to Boca on penalties in the final of the Diego Maradona Cup staged to complete the year after the return of the soccer.

The Champions Trophy was played in 2021 with River’s victory against Colón 4-0 and recently Boca and Racing met – they agreed after eliminating Tigre in the tie-break – with a 2-1 victory for Avellaneda’s team.

how does the river come

River enter this match after beating Tigre 1-0 on Saturday with a goal by Leandro González Pirez in the fourth round of the Professional League (LPF) championship, where they have 9 points thanks to victories against Central Córdoba and Argentinos and the defeat against Belgrano.

The match will be the first one-on-one for Demichelis with a very strong symbolic weight, given that the Gallardo era was very effective in this type of match, accessing 17 final matches in the almost 9 years of management.

If instead they beat Banfield, River will play a new one-on-one final against Boca, a team that Gallardo has eliminated 5 times in the era and lost in the last two on penalties for national tournaments.

As far as training is concerned, and if there are no last-minute problems, the coach’s idea is to keep the same team that won in Victoria with the return of Jonatan Maidana in place of González Pirez.

In any case, Demichelis will confirm the starting line-up before the Córdoba match after the technical interview which will take place at the Córdoba rally where they will go tomorrow evening.

As Banfield arrives

For his part, the Drill enters the game with a 2-0 away defeat against Newell’s in a match in which he failed to exploit the player too much and where he wasted several scoring chances to at least get an equalizer.

Javier Sanguinetti’s side are yet to win the tournament as, after a goalless start to Unión at home, they fell 3-2 to visiting Huracán and then drew again without a goal at home to Gimnasia La Silver.

“When you play against River you are never favourites, that’s a reality unless you have a superlative level. We won’t see what happens, we have the illusion of being able to get a result and play another final.” declared in the last hour.

In principle, DT will focus on the entry of young Alan Di Pippa, who could run in the central zone, Eric Remedi would enter the central zone and Alejandro Piedrahita and Milton Giménez would play in the starting eleven.

history

Between amateur and professional, River and Banfield have faced each other 109 times with 65 victories for the Buenos Aires team and 19 for that of the south of Greater Buenos Aires. They have drawn 25 times. Therefore, for the present and for history, the Slumdog Millionaire is the big favorite to win the series and open the doors to a new Superclassico.