River defeated Boca in the Argentine superclásico with a legendary goal by the pearl Mastantuono

The River Plate won the Argentina after defeating Boca Juniors 2-1 on Sunday at the Monumental stadium in Nunez, in a match that will go down in history for the goal scored by the very young Franco Mastantuono, who at the age of 17 showed that the new promise of soccer is becoming a reality, whose only questions right now are how high his ceiling will be and how long it will take for him to make the leap to Europe.

In a crowded stadium, the pre-match preparations generated a surprise when the lineup of the Xeneize team was announced, with Fernando Gago deciding to use a line of three that clearly did not work, as they were permanently threatened by every attack of the "millionaires". The first goal would come at 25 minutes after a free kick by Mastantuono that will go down in history, when he took a shot from almost 30 meters out that was as violent as it was subtle and went into the corner of Agustín Marchesín, who could do little. A free kick not so different from the one taken by Lionel Messi against Alisson Becker in the first leg of the Champions League semifinals between Barcelona and Liverpool.

A back-and-forth match

Although River showed good minutes and control of the match the ten minutes after Mastantuono's goal, even having very clear chances to score that were saved by Marchesín, Boca never lost sight of the match and was ready to get into a frenetic back and forth that they capitalized with the equalizer by Miguel Merentielafter a mistake by world champion Germán Pezzella. Thus the equalizer materialized, with Merentiel not only becoming the scorer of the Argentine championship, but also confirming his status as the most important and decisive player in Boca's attack.

The match had entered a beautiful maelstrom in which anything could happen regardless of the context and regardless of signs to the contrary. The best example was the goal by Sebastián Driussi that clearly contradicted the good moment that Gago's team was starting to have and the way they were showing superiority on the pitch. The two to one came after a great play by Marcos Acuña, who would launch a beautiful cross that Driussi would head, to then score after a great save by Marchesín.

The second half would show a less frenetic game and with fewer goal-scoring opportunities, with the clear exception of a two against one that Mastantuono would waste, and two great saves by Franco Armani in the last minutes. The final whistle of referee Nicolás Ramírez closed the curtain on a great match in which River would close its great week after drawing away against Independiente del Valle in the Copa Libertadores, with Marcelo Gallardo showing once again that he has the measure of the xeneize team. On the other hand, Gago's team suffers an important setback after several weeks in which it has been emerging as the best team in this first phase, after the traumatic elimination against Alianza Lima at La Bombonera, snatching from them the possibility of playing in the great continental tournament.