Defense and Justice Y River They were diluted in promises. They insinuated a lot but made little concrete. They had some situations but they did not know how to define them. In the end, the goalless draw was the corollary of a game with few emotions.
In the case of River, there is a mitigating factor: he played with a patched-up formation, with too many absences due to calls to the selected ones and some injured. And he was noticed.
The two teams approached the first half with similar ideas: put together passes in the middle of the field and suddenly surprise with long balls that put the internal midfielders hand in hand with the opposing full-backs. In Defense, Walter Bou worked very well as a pitcher and Rotondi and Alanis as wide receivers. In River, Enzo Fernández and Simón did the same on the right. And that’s where the situations came.
Defense had three and in all of them, Rotondi hit the centers and Fontana failed the definition. River generated less. And he also had the same problem: what Simón managed on the right was invariably wasted by Braian Romero. Therefore, the marker closed blank.
Gallardo tried to improve Romero’s supply by putting Palavecino behind. But the attempt was unsuccessful and Palavecino was replaced by Pochettino at the end of the first quarter of an hour of the second half.
In general, the quality of Enzo Fernández made River play better. But it had no depth. And as the defense situations were spaced out because Bou was turned off and the ball reached Rotondi much less, the game was falling apart with the passing of the minutes. At the end, a cross from Pizzini went close to the left post and another shot from the same player was saved by Maidana on the mouth of the goal. Too little for a game that gave less than expected.