– Boca Juniors and Racing Club will play this Friday the first edition of the International Soccer Super Cup, in a match that inevitably brings to mind the bitter memory of the Champions Trophy final, played last November and which ended with ten driven out.
After that match, which ended with an agonizing 2-1 victory for the ‘Academy’ and which left significant resentment, to the point that the teams had to share a flight to Abu Dhabi against their will, they will now meet at the stadium Hazza bin Zayed, from Al Ain (United Arab Emirates).
Despite the fact that the Argentine Super Cup had to face Boca Juniors, champion of the Professional Soccer League and the 2022 League Cup, and the Patronato, winner of the 2022 Argentine Cup, the Argentine Soccer Association (AFA) created this new tournament , as part of an agreement with the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, under the name of the International Super Cup.
To define the first title of the 2023 season, Racing Club agreed to this decisive match after winning the Champions Trophy, with goals from Matías Rojas and Carlos Alcaraz, recently transferred to Southampton, while Boca Juniors comes second in the general table behind those of Avellaneda.
Boca reaches this commitment without reinforcements, beyond the returns of the youth players Ezequiel Fernández and Nicolás Valentini, plus the uncertainty of whether goalkeeper Agustín Rossi will play or not, who signed a pre-contract ten days ago with Flamengo to join as a free player starting July 1 of this year.
This Monday the Paraguayan defender Bruno Valdez was presented as the first reinforcement of the ‘xeneize’ squad, who stays in Buenos Aires and does not accompany the rest of the squad led by Hugo Ibarra.
Racing, meanwhile, has three additions: Juan Nardoni, Maximiliano Morález -returns to the institution- and the Chilean Óscar Opazo, who would start in Fernando Gago’s eleven.
Among his casualties compared to last season are the aforementioned Alcaraz, striker Enzo Copetti -transferred to US Charlotte FC- and Chilean Eugenio Mena -who returned to his country-.
Boca and Racing met 182 times, with 83 wins for ‘Xeneize’, 55 for the Academy and 44 draws.
The referee of the match will be the World Cup player Fernando Rapallini and his assistants -also present in Qatar 2022- will be Juan Pablo Belatti and Diego Bonfá.
Probable lineups:
Boca Juniors: Javier García or Sergio Romero; Luis Advíncula, Facundo Roncaglia, Agustín Sández, Frank Fabra; Pol Fernandez, Alan Varela, Juan Ramirez; Norberto Briasco or Óscar Romero, Darío Benedetto and Sebastián Villa. Coach: Hugo Ibarra.
Racing: Gabriel Arias; Oscar Opazo, Leonardo Sigali, Emiliano Insúa, Gonzalo Piovi; Jonatan Gomez, Anibal Moreno, Maximiliano Moralez; Gabriel Hauche or Matías Rojas; Maximiliano Romero and Johan Carbonero. Coach: Fernando Gago.
Stadium: Hazza Bin Zayed, from Al Ain (Abu Dhabi, USA).
Referee: Fernando Rapallini.
Time: 7:30 p.m. (9:30 GMT).
Source: EFE.
