River played with determination on the rival playing field, making its presence and authority felt. It was clearly in control for most of the first half and brought about threatening situations since the very beginning of the match: first, after a great collective play on the left, Rafael Borré fired a left-footed shot over the crossbar. Then, after a combination play between the Colombian forward and Matías Suárez, player No. 7 made an assist to Jorge Carrascal; however, Weverton responded well and saved the shot.
River kept on playing, pressuring up the field. Palmeiras, waiting on its side of the field, couldn’t catch a break. Nicolás De La Cruz had a chance on the right, but his low center shot didn’t reach any teammate. Then, Gonzalo Montiel made an assist to Borré. but the goal scorer wasn’t able to grab it comfortably enough to open the scoring.
In the first threatening play by the rival team, after Franco Armani came a bit off his line, Rony took control of the ball in the box and fired a crossed shot, setting the score at 1-0. River felt the blow, but kept trying to even the score. Towards the end, after a good, crossed center pass from Carrascal, the rival defense deflected the ball when Suárez and Borré were coming in through the heart of the box. On another very clear opportunity, Nacho Fernández’s frontal free kick smacked the crossbar.
At the beginning of the second half, River’s defense was disorganized, Adriano ran faster and fired a low shot, scoring the unexpected second goal, after no more than two plays. El Millionario wanted to get one goal back and had some very clear chances: a header by Borré blocked by the goalkeeper and another header by Carrascal that slightly deflected. De La Cruz also had a shot from outside the box.
In some fatal moments of the match, Carrascal was dismissed and that free kick led to Palmeira’s third goal off a header by Vila. Given this result, River has to score three goals in the second leg match before hoping to qualify for the Cup’s final.