Franco Armani became mainstream again in River’s favorite scenario: the Copa Libertadores

On a cold Wednesday night in Santiago de Chile, River warmed him up. Marcelo Gallardo’s cup team returned to win an important match against Colo-Colo that served not only to guide qualification to the round of 16 of the Copa Libertadores, but also to change energy after two bad results ( defeat against Talleres and draw against Atlético Tucumán) in the League Cup. Moreover, he confirmed that The hierarchy emerges in difficult moments and experience of its players. Like, for example, Franco Armani.

The goalkeeper also returned to his level on a Copa Libertadores night, the competition that suits you best. He has won it twice (once with Atlético Nacional de Medellín and another with the River) and has had decisive performances, often a figure on his teams. “We weren’t worried about his level because he had a lot of personality and we knew he would spin it fast.”, A member of River’s technical staff told Clarín.

At the Monumental de Santiago, Armani became monumental again. This is when the game is 0 to 0, meaning when the match is hot, the player from Casildense showed up to give the team security and touch his fence. He stopped three key balls in the first half, one of them very hard, the other in the middle in the form of goalkeeper Pablo Solari with no Colo-Colo player connected and the “Millionaire” goalkeeper stretched to get the ball with the palm of his right hand.

Lucero’s final goal put him on goal undefeated but didn’t change the equation. In three games in group F of continental competition, Armani kept the fence clean at two and barely scored a goal. And in a tournament like Libertadores, it’s important that very few goals are recorded.

This has happened in the past four editions of the Cup, where Armani has saved for River. In 2018, where Gallardo’s team was the champion, they scored 9 goals in 14 games; in 2019, being runner-up, they also scored 9 times, but in 13 games, since that year they began playing the final as a single match; in 2020, where he fell in the semifinals, they also scored 9 goals in 11 games (on the first day, at 0-3 against Liga de Quito in Ecuador, Enrique Bologna was saved, who was sent off and then Germán entered Lux.) And in 2021, falling into the quarterfinals, they made him 11 of 9 games (Armani didn’t stop at 2-1 against Independiente Santa Fe, the night Enzo Pérez went on goal, because he had a coronavirus).

In the single Cup they scored more than one goal per game was in 2021. In the other three the average was 0.64 (in 2018); 0.69 (in 2019) and 0.81 (in 2020). And if the four editions are counted together, the average is 0.80, as they scored 38 goals in 47 games.

Armani’s records with the Libertadores were remarkable when he cut to Nacional de Medellín. In the 2016 Cup, which was won by the Colombian team, the Santa Fe player scored 6 goals in 14 games, that is, 0.42 per game. And at the group stage they didn’t convert him.

Armani came from a poor game in the local tournament. where he had responsibilities on goals River received from Banfield, Talleres and Atlético Tucumán last week. But the goalkeeper brought out his personality and hierarchy in Chile. And when some brave critics predicted that his place in the World Cup might be in danger, the 35-year-old goalkeeper once again showed that he was still valid. And he did it in the Copa Libertadores, his tournament par excellence.