Boca tied tonight 1-1 at home against Corinthians, from Brazil, and continues to occupy second place in Zone E of the Copa Libertadores behind its rival on Tuesday, although it depends on itself to qualify for the round of 16 when in the sixth and last date of the group stage receives Deportivo Cali, from Colombia.
Boca played its best game of this Copa Libertadores and by extension also the best of the year taking into account the hierarchy of the rival.
The team led by Sebastián Battaglia played as they should in a match of this magnitude, in a very different way from the one they had played last weekend against Racing Club for the semifinal of the Professional League Cup, when they went on to the final without kicking a shot on goal.
This time Boca was an active team in the first pressurewhich is generally soft but this time it was not so, especially due to the prodigality of the kid Exequiel Zeballos, well supported in that function by Darío Benedetto and Eduardo Salvio.
But the one who received the most praise was Alan Varelareturning to his good times as a central midfielder of a trio, that of the MVA, which made up Boca’s midfield completed by Agustín Almendra and Cristian Medina.
Of course, all that good that Boca was doing from the opening whistle of the Uruguayan Christian Ferreyra seemed to collapse just after a quarter of an hour of the first stage when a shot without much power from the edge of the area by Du Quiroz failed to be reached by Agustín Rossy.
But if Boca had been good from the ambition for victory when they were 0 to 0, much more so from being and, above all, “feeling” at a disadvantage.
But all those attributes that the questionable Battaglia team had shown, whose vice president, Juan Román Riquelme, came out to defend last night, were going to have their prize when the first half was already over and The Peruvian Carlos Zambrano headed down a center to Benedetto so that he could celebrate his 32nd birthday with the equalizing goal.
Everything was served then for Boca to launch himself in pursuit of victory in the second half, since he was not only dominating the match from the soccer point of view, but from that last goal, also from the emotional point of view.
And this was maximized when averaging the stage se Colombian Víctor Cantilo was expelled for hitting Guillermo “Pol” Fernández with his right fist, which generated a five-minute whirlwind between the players of both teams in the middle of the field.
From then on (the visiting coach Vítor Pereira was also expelled) it was absolute dominance that the Boca team exercised with Varela and Fernández as drivers, and twice Eduardo Salvio came close to breaking the parity, first with a heads up that The goalkeeper Cassio won and in the epilogue with a header into the mouth of the small area after a precise center by Óscar Romero that went next to the right post.
And with that possibility, the chance that Boca began to adjust its classification to the round of 16 also vanished, since with the tie it did not modify its status quo in the group, which is still led by Corinthians, now with 8 units (the Brazilians they are also the only pointers of the Brasileirao), followed by the “xeneize” with 7, but if Deportivo Cali (5) beats Always Ready (4) on Thursday, they will surpass it.
In favor Boca will have, however, that everything will depend on himself, because precisely on Thursday, May 26, he will receive the Colombians in the Bombonera to close the group stageand as long as they win over the Bolivians, the “Ribera” team will end up qualifying if they are victorious, regardless of what happens in São Paulo between Corinthians and Always Ready.
