In Mendoza, River brought about a few threatening situations at the very beginning of the match: Julián Álvarez enabled Lucas Pratto, who tapped the ball towards Nelson Ibáñez and was meant to score, but Marcelo Herrera ran after it and prevented el Millionario's first goal from being scored. After this play, and given his collision with one of the goalposts, the defender had to be replaced by Gonzalo Goñi.
Godoy Cruz responded immediately after a moment of distraction when River was clearing the ball. Then, Enrique Bologna reacted stupendously to a one-on-one against Sebastián Lomonaco. El Millionario kept on insisting and setting the pace of the game in the rival field. Cristian Ferreira fired a weak shot towards the middle of the goal and Matías Suárez wasn’t able to comfortably fire a center pass from Fabrizio Angileri.
River’s no. 7 had another very clear chance by means of a low cross which was deflected by a rival defender. At the end of the first half, el Muñeco’s team was better, making its presence felt at all lines.
In the second half, Leonardo Ponzio sent a warning from outside and Angileri had his chance, by means of a volley that went high over the crossbar. Then, after a very good play by Pratto on the right, Ferreira didn’t manage to head the ball accurately enough. When Jorge Carrascal came onto the field, he wanted to take over and, in one of his first plays, he enabled Angileri, who fired another shot towards the goal.
Gallardo resorted to the bench and Federico Girotti scored a diving header with the first ball he touched, which was a great center pass from Suárez. However, a few minutes later, Darío Herrera awarded a penalty as sanction for a handball by Casco, but Bologna was great and saved Tomás Badaloni’s left-footed shot.
River could have settled it, with a left-footed shot by Benjamín Rollheiser which was blocked by Juan Bolado (who replaced an injured Ibáñez). Towards the end, Bologna appeared again to deflect a shot by Martín Ojeda. El Millionario won and reached the six-point mark within its group; next matchday, on Friday, it will visit Banfield, which is leading the group with nine points.
