Almost 24 hours after the elimination in the round of 16 of the Copa Libertadores against Corinthians, Boca announced on their social networks that Sebastián Battaglia ceased to be the technical director.
“Club Atlético Boca Juniors communicates that Sebastián Battaglia is no longer the coach of the first soccer team and thanks him for his contribution throughout this cycle,” Xeneize reported in a brief statement published this Wednesday night, while River-Vélez was being played.
“Battaglia, after passing through the Reserve, took over as coach of the First Division and added two titles, such as the Argentine Cup and the League Cup, for which the entire club will be eternally grateful to him for his work. Sebastián, Boca It will always be your home. Many successes in your career, “he completes the text entitled “Many successes, Seba”.
After the unexpected defeat on penalties against the Brazilians, Boca (and everything that surrounds it) did nothing but deepen and accelerate its crisis. Far from doing damage control and appeasing the effects of the fall almost at midnight on Wednesday, he reopened his old wounds in the open.
Post-match statements in which Battaglia complained about the Football Council’s lack of aggressiveness in the current transfer market and the departure of Eduardo Salvio worsened the thick climate that began to be experienced in the Bombonera as soon as the premature defeat was sentenced. Faced with the finding that his words had fallen badly on campus and that Nor had they had a favorable echo in the Council led by Juan Román Riquelme. Upon arrival at the Ezeiza complex, Battaglia asked for the floor to clarify the case.
“I did not expose my players and I am proud, I said it last night (for the post-elimination press conference). I look rude if I don’t answer and as a journalist asked me about this issue of reinforcements, I answered it,” said the coach. Then he added: “It’s becoming clear that the squad took my statements wrong and it’s not like that. I said that I felt represented by them and by what the team did. Unfortunately we stayed out because we couldn’t get it in and football is like that”, he analyzed Battaglia, who got out of his private car and interrupted a television mobile to make his statement. From movie.
“All the coaches ask for reinforcements and we ask in places that we believe the current squad can be strengthened. It is logical. If journalism wants to turn it around and point the other way, it is already something that does not concern me. It is normal to ask for reinforcements at the beginning of the season”, Battaglia explained. who admitted as a self-criticism that perhaps he should have included center forward Luis Vázquez to open the closed defensive scheme that the Brazilians took to Boca.
Riquelme and the rest of the members of the Football Council did not go through Ezeiza and everything suggested that, at least for the remainder of Wednesday, there would be no news. But around 10 pm, in the middle of River’s game, the club announced the departure of the historic Xeneize player from the coaching position. A real bombshell.
Now Román and company will have to look for the third coach of their cycle (the first was Miguel Ángel Russo) while they manage to repair the economic damage caused by another elimination in the round of 16. In principle, the two million dollars paid by Conmebol for the pass to the quarterfinals were lost, while calculating a hypothetical path to the title, the amount to be collected would have ranged between 20 and 25 million dollars. In La Boca, dollars are lacking and there are plenty of problems.
