When Boca seemed to have managed to take the game to the alley in which he could better drive it, when he had dried the ideas of Benfica and already sighted the first victory of a South American team against a European one, a fan of River, the prize shown the prize heading a corner. Nothing elaborate, a classic of the oldest. The Portuguese rescued with two moves with a stopped ball (a penalty and that corner kick) a draw that had been elusive with the game, where they showed more records and fineness.
2
Agustín Marchesín, Luis Advíncula, Lautaro Blanco, Ayrton Costa, Nicolás Figal, Ander Herrera (Tomás Belmonte, Min. 19), Kevin Zenón, Rodrigo Battaglia, Alan Velasco (Milton Giménez, Min. 58), Carlos Palacios (Williams Alarcón, Min. 65) and Miguel Merentiel (Exequiel Zeballos, Min. 64)
2
In the Anatoli, António Silva, Samuel (Andrea Belotti, min. 45), in Otameni, Fredrik Aursnes, Florentino, 89), Renato Sanches. (Kerem Aktürkoglu, min. 60), Ángel Di María (Gianluca Prestian, min. 76) y Vangel in Pavlidis
Goals
1-0 min. 20: Miguel Merentiel. 2-0 min. 26: Battaglia. 2-1 min. 47: Di María. 2-2 min. 83: Otamendi
Referee César Arturo Ramos Palazuelos
Yellow cards
Carlos palacios (min. 65), álvaro fernández (min. 67), Vangelis Pavlidis (Min. 82), Ayrton Costa (Min. 84)
Red cards
Ander Herrera (min. 44), Belotti (min. 71), Jorge Figal (min. 87)
But football opts many times in the opposite direction of what the ball points. Often, in favor of emotional current. He arrived submerged in internal disquisitions, from the dome to the grass, and found an academic and dominant team. Benfica appeared in Miami still with the tail wind of the good inertia of the Champions League. And the beginning was that, a team that had competed to the eighths of the European Cup playing almost alone against another disoriented medium.
The Portuguese dominated the center of the countryside with Renato Sanches, Bruma and Florentino Luis. And, with a lot of rope at 37, he baffled his compatriots. Appeared on the right, on the left; He chopped in the middle, always with solutions to disturb Miguel Ángel Russo’s team. They stepped on the area, they hit the post and Boca joined the ranks while deploying a raw game, stirred by their people.
It was played with the bottom of the growing soundtrack of Boca’s stands, which had been heating throats from the previous day, when thousands gathered in Miami Beach. A happy flock and confident in his thrust. Small extract of the Bombonera. Below, their own tightened to blind the benfica. But it cost them. They barely spun.
It didn’t matter. Football bear fruit for many roads, Boca was enough to find several heads. It was not to distill a plan: it was enough to support two centers. First a long ball left to Lautaro Blanco. He threw a pipe, put it to the area and there appeared the Uruguayan Merentiel in the first stick, a touch, tac, and goal.
Boca people uploaded the volume. He stirred the stand. In a physical way. The hard rock ranged over the waves of the “dale bo …”. Then, a corner to the second stick, a header from there to the first and another of Battaglia to find the network. Bruno Lage denied on the Portuguese bench. Incredulous. His machine would flow in the right way, but he was behind. Boca retains intact competitive attributes that resurface in great scenarios.
The principle of Benfica’s rescue did not appear in his manual. It did not arrive from the game. Otamendi was thrown in the area after a corner without the referee having seen anything. But in the room of Var yes something had hunted. And they alerted the monitor to the referee, who before reviewing images expelled Ander Herrera. The Spanish followed the game from the Boca bench after having to retire injured within a few minutes. Then he could check the video, in which he found a lack of palaces, and in one of the scenic novelties of the tournament, he explained by the stadium speakers why he pointed out a penalty. Di María gently pushed him to the network when Marchesín won to his left.
Boca administered the advantage while Benfica was losing fineness in her maneuvers. They no longer managed to mess the Argentines so much, that they sailed the incessant current of their tier. The Portuguese were clouded, who visited the area less frequently. Russo’s team wonderfully drives such a scenario, in which the despair of the opposite increases while the clock progresses. They distract seconds from anywhere, in an eternal band serve, or with the goalkeeper throwing himself to the ground with a sudden discomfort that disappears without the intervention of any sanitary. They had three players lying in the grass while their people again oscillate the stadium.
Time ran in his favor, even more when the VAR suggested the referee to expel Belotti, and the referee agreed. He had hit him with the boot on the head to César Ramos. The Portuguese left a player and five minutes between attentions and looks at the monitor. Boca had where he wanted. Until, more uncovered than ever, Benfica found remedy in a corner with which Otamendi was right. Precisely Otamendi, who faced the stand of those compatriots who had been pidered from the beginning. And deactivated his enthusiasm.
