Julian Álvarez and Diego Costa were both on the score sheet. Julian scored both River’s goals while Diego scored Tricolors. This was the first victory for the Argentine club over the Brazilian team after six attempts in the Libertadores.
The victory came at the most critical moment for Fernando Diniz since this is his first spell at the club as manager.
It took 10 minutes to break the deadline as the score already read 1-0 in favor of the Argentines. The goal was scored by Julian Álvarez following a beautiful pass from De La Cruz. Tricolor showed they had the power to react after they fell short and were behind early on, they tried to equal the score line as quick as possible with a more experienced formation involving Juanfran and Hernanes.
They managed to do so after Diego Costa pounced on a dead ball, leveling the score line. River Plate took their lead once again minutes later after the Tricolor defence showed some weakness following a counterattack.
Julian Álvarez was at the receiving end of the quick attack and put his side 2-1 up before the break.
In the second half, the game was quite the same, São Paulo didn’t have the sense of urgency needed and it was no surprise they could not get anything further from the game.
LDU, with 12 points, and River Plate, with 10, are classified in the round of 16 and face each other in the last round to define the leadership of Group D. São Paulo has four points, one more than Binacional. With a draw in the direct confrontation, Tricolor guarantees the third place and disputes the Copa Sudamericana during the year.
