Libertadores draw: the balls wink at River and San Lorenzo goes to the “group of death”

One of the most anticipated moments of the year took place this Monday evening at the Conmebol headquarters in Luque, where a new edition of the competition was drawn. Copa Libertadores, which this year will distribute 226 million dollars and the winner of the final will pocket 23 million dollars. And the result that the balloons launched left smiles on everyone’s faces. RiverThat will have a “friendly” group., in which there are no Brazilians. Estudiantes, Talleres, Rosario Central and San Lorenzo, however, the rest of the Argentines playing in the top continental tournament, will have to face a Brazilian team.

The ball containing the name River Plate went out at the end of the seeding round, therefore The Núñez club was placed in Group H. And the latter laugh better, they say. This was confirmed when the Brazilian Fred Nantes, director of Conmebol Competitions, showed the sheets of paper that Cafú, Lucas Pratto, Martín Palermo and Oscar Ruggeri were taking out.

First of all, the team Martin Demichelis He avoided the two Brazilians who could touch him, Atlético Mineiro, located in pot 2, and Botafogo, in pot 4. And the rivals he had, a priori, would not represent complicated obstacles for the Millionaire’s access to the round of 16. They will face Libertad of Paraguay, Deportivo Táchira of Venezuela and Nacional of Uruguay. You will also have little travel. The only long one is up to the city of San Cristóbal, Venezuelan land. Of course, these rivals deserve your respect: Libertad and Táchira were champions in their countries in 2023 and Nacional are three-time champions of America.

“Every match is a world, it’s the Copa Libertadores“, the championship most desired by everyone, and we must not trust it”, said Ignacio Villarroel, second vice president of River, after the conclusion of a draw that had a lot of millionaire presence. Also present were president Jorge Brito, first vice president Matías Patanian, Leonardo Ponzio and coach Enzo Francescoli, also awarded by Conmebol. They gave him reruns of the Libertadores, won with River in 1996, and the Copa América, won three times (1983, 1987 and 1995) with Uruguay.