Boca Juniors beats River Plate in the Superclásico and qualifies for the Libertadores 2026

(AFP) Boca Juniors won the Superclásico 2-0 against River Plate on Sunday and qualified for the Copa Libertadores de América 2026.

With more than 50,000 fans packing La Bombonera, Boca Juniors delivered a dominant win over its archrival, leaving the rival’s hopes of qualifying for next year’s Libertadores in serious trouble.

Exequiel Zeballos in first-half stoppage time (45+1') and Uruguayan Miguel Merentiel a minute into the second half scored the goals for Xeneize.

The opening minutes slightly favored Millonario, which controlled possession, but, however, similar to several matches this year, the team lacked attacking clarity and struggled to create real scoring chances.

Zeballos, key

Nothing transcendent happened almost until the end of the first half.

But before the end, Boca made an impact with an accurate counterattack, after a long ball from Costa was received by Zeballos, who broke away on his own and scored with an empty goal after a first shot that was saved by goalkeeper Franco Armani.

The advantage was already a good difference for Boca, who hammered in their first clear play, but they were to hit twice at the start of the second half when Zeballos recovered on River's right wing, broke away at speed and assisted Merentiel, who made it 2-0.

Claudio Ubeda, Boca's interim manager after the death of Miguel Russo a month ago (October 8), dedicated the victory to his predecessor: “Much of what you see in this team is a reflection of him.”

With the victory, Boca sealed its ticket to the group stage of the Copa Libertadores 2026 as runner-up to Rosario Central in the annual table, even though it still has a chance to be champion of the Clausura, in which it is already in the round of 16.

"We are happy for the victory. This team deserved to enter the Libertadores, and that we were able to take that step, and I'm also happy for scoring a goal against River, which means a lot to me," said Merentiel, who has now scored 48 goals in the xeneize jersey.

On the other hand, River has still not found its way and dropped back to sixth place in Group B, although it is still close to qualifying for the round of 16.

Gallardo desisted from holding the usual press conference after the defeat.

For his part, Colombian midfielder JuanFer Quintero grew irritated with a question and insisted, “We’ve hit rock bottom. My work may have been good, average, or bad, but I would never try to undermine a coach. Digging for problems that aren’t there and adding fuel to the fire makes no sense.”