River managed to recover tonight in the Copa Argentina, qualifying for the round of 16 with a good 3-0 victory over Barracas Central in the La Pedrera stadium, in the San Luis city of Villa Mercedes, after a couple of sad soccer weeks, both internationally with the elimination in the Copa Libertadores and in the local competition with some unexpected defeats.
The successive blows that River received both in the elimination of the Copa Libertadores just in the round of 16 at the hands of Vélez and the defeat at the hands of Godoy Cruz in the Monumental stadium itself did not allow another displeasure for its coach, Marcelo Gallardo, who put deep hand on the team with a couple of strong starts.
Those who left the starting team were two practically immovable players among its starters, such as the Chilean central defender Paulo Díaz and the Uruguayan midfielder Nicolás De la Cruz.
Their places were this Wednesday for Héctor Martínez, to whom the coach gave him a new opportunity after his chaotic performance against Vélez in the first leg, when he caused the penalty that gave the Liniers victory at home by 1 to 0, and Santiago Simon.
Both had irregular performances, more the second than the first, who seemed to waste the opportunity by being expelled when he was averaging the complement for a double warning.
Simón, meanwhile, had some interesting actions in the first period, one that could have ended in a goal after leaving Nicolás Ferreyra on the road with a short dribble and then finishing off a cross, forcing the intervention with the feet of goalkeeper Maximiliano Gagliardo.
Later it was disappearing in the game, something that happened hand in hand with the group performance of the “millionaires”, who were nothing more than Central Barracks at the start of the match, but raised after Milton Casco’s great goal just over 20 minutes.
A good play to the left by Esequiel Barco with Elías Gómez ended with the ball on the other side so that Casco, from the edge of the area, nailed a high right hand against the crossbar, near the right corner of the “Guapo” goal, returning to convert after more than two years.
That superiority of Gallardo’s men over Alfredo’s was definitively rooted in the development of the match with the start of the second stage, when the ball was all River’s, who managed the times to the beat of Rodrigo Aliendro.
That’s how the second goal came, with Allendro’s footstep and heel-assist to Agustín Palavecino so that the latter converted the first of his goals on the Mercedes night between Gagliardo’s legs, shortly before Martínez’s expulsionwhich arrived at 23 minutes.
Just five minutes later, Palavecino appeared outside the area to nail another lethal right hand to the upper left corner. of a well-done Gagliardo, who on this occasion did not hit any defense.
By then Berti had already made his debut for former Arsenal, from Sarandí, Cristian Colmán, who, along with Sebastián Rincón, formed a 4-3-3, which ended, however, with Barracas Central suffering half the pitch.
Gallardo had also moved the shelf with the entry of Paulo Díaz to fill the gap left by Martínez in the center of defense, sacrificing Simón in midfield, when his performance had definitely dropped.
But the result, although minimally demanding for River, left him at least the taste of some performances to get excited about a better performance, such as those of Lucas Beltrán and Elías Gómez, in addition to the aforementioned Aliendro, the figure of the night, and Palavecino , today in scoring version.
Now River will come in the round of 16 of this Argentine Cup the Defense and Justice of Sebastián Beccacece, recreating a controversial crossover like the last time for the local contest between the two minor coaches of Argentine soccer today.
