River Plate came out victorious against Atetico-PR hlon Tuesday in the second leg fixture of the Libertadores round of 16. A penalty from De La Cruz was enough to send the Argentine side through against an Athletico side that were missing up to 15 players and even played the game with no goalkeeper at all on the bench.
The first half turned out to be a very balanced game and it was one where both teams had their chances to score.
Despite the absentees, Athletico did their best to be in the game and tried to keep up their usual standards.
However, Hurricane started to suffer in the second half with the team showing fatigue, setting themselves up to be opened up by their opponents and allowing unnecessary pressure to pile up.
Goalkeeper Bento was a shining light on the day with some good saves to go with but there was nothing he could do against the penalty by De La Cruz which proved to be the crucial moment of the game. River Plate are the current runners-up of the competition and have now advanced further once more.
River Plate have now booked a spot in the quarter-finals following their victory over Athletico. They will face Nacional or Independiente Del Valle in the quarterfinals. The teams will play their second leg fixture on Wednesday night.
Following their elimination from the Libertadores, Athletico now need to worry only about the Brazilian Championship. For their next outing, they will take on Fluminense on Saturday.
