The point knows little because
Nacional de Potosí
will have the River shirt, but it is very far from the
Boca
hierarchy , which did not take advantage of a penalty at the end of the first half. It is true that
Leandro Brey ended up being the figure for his firm hands in each center and three sensational covers
during a second stage in which wear and height weighed. However,
Diego Martínez
's team missed a great opportunity to start the
Copa Sudamericana
with a victory against a weak opponent.
However, those kids who ended up playing as part of a rotation that was due to the complexity of the trip to the highlands took advantage of it. Especially,
Milton Delgado (18 years old)
, daring and confrontational.
Juan Zufriaurre (18) and Walter Molas (19)
also entered
, all absolute debutants. It happened in the second half, when the coach looked for freshness in the midst of fatigue.
The penalty that Darío Benedetto missed
at the end of the initial stage did not allow Boca to justify in the result the dominance that it exercised during most of the match. The “9”, who had been key in the previous play that led to an infraction by
Edisson Restrepo on Lucas Janson
, finished hard and high, but the ball exploded off the crossbar. And all the unease took over the forward, who had shown a good level.
Boca did not feel the height in the initial forty-five minutes. Aboard a 4-1-4-1 in which
Mauricio Benítez
felt comfortable as the only central midfielder, Diego Martínez put together an elastic team, which sought to be deep on the wings and had Benedetto as a very active center forward. Also,
Norberto Briasco
on the right and
Jabes Saralagui
taking off from midfield.
In this context, Boca generated enough situations to open the scoring. Briasco sent a poisonous cross from the right and Benedetto failed to head it squarely when the game started. Later, Saralagui tried from medium distance and blocked Saidt Mustafá. The youth himself shook from outside and the ball went over the crossbar. There were also a couple of good triangulations on the left, with a climb by Marcelo Saracchi, among them. There were 16 Argentine attempts, but only 3 shots on goal, including a penalty, of course.
Nacional de Potosí ceded the initiative to its illustrious rival and arrived quickly by hitting the ball. Pragmatic, direct, he attacked less than Boca, but produced two situations that compromised Leandro Brey. The clearest was a long pass from Maximiliano Ortiz that
Miguel Prost headed
and found a notable response from the young goalkeeper.
The Bolivians gained ground on the outside, especially behind Saracchi, where
Facundo Callejo sneaked in
several times, forcing
Nicolás Valentini
to leave behind and go far away. In any case, the overflows of the Argentine who wears the Nacional shirt failed to be dangerous because
Brey cut off all the centers.
The match was entertaining due to the dynamics and the back-and-forth, despite the geographical situation. And at the end of the first stage, when Boca was already beginning to feel the wear and tear, there was a great combination between
Juan Ramírez, Janson and Benedetto
, who remained one-on-one with Mustafá, covered the goalkeeper and the Colombian Restrepo brought down Janson. The Bolivians claimed a previous hand from Benítez that was not noticed. El Pipa missed the penalty and the result was not changed.
In the second half,
Pampa Biaggio
– his assistant Antonio Mur was on the bench – sent Gustavo Cristaldo onto the field. And the Paraguayan veteran complicated his mobility between the center backs and even scared all of Boca with a mid-distance shot that Brey blocked.
"IF WE MAKE IT COUNT AT HOME, IT'S A GOOD DRAW" 🗣️
▶️ Leandro Brey, one of Boca's figures in the CONMEBOL debut #SudamericanaEnDSPORTS
🎙️ @m_benedetto pic.twitter.com/S2IsAGsr0e
— DSPORTS (@DSports) April 4, 2024
Afterwards, they caused concern with two set pieces and two headers resolved by the goalkeeper, one from William Alvarez and another from Nicolás Valentini that almost ended in a goal against.
In the end,
Saracchi lost it
. And it was a 0-0 tie at 4,090 meters above sea level, but it ended up being a meager consolation due to the difference in category and that shot from twelve steps that could have been the winning goal.