Gallardo apologized to the fans after River’s embarrassing performance against Riestra

After being eliminated by Palmeiras in the quarterfinals of the Copa Libertadores, River can't get back on track. The 2-1 defeat against Deportivo Riestra at Más Monumental, on matchday 10 of the 2025 Clausura, deepened the football crisis, marking their fourth consecutive defeat (something that hadn't happened since 2010), and left the team exposed on a special day: Fan Day.

In this situation, Marcelo Gallardo was self-critical and publicly apologized. "We're not going through a good moment in these short weeks, four matches with negative results deserve an apology. I want to apologize to our fans," Muñeco acknowledged at the press conference.

He added: "This wasn't the moment we wanted to be in and, nevertheless, they're always present. On Fan Day we couldn't turn around what happened in Copa Libertadores and give them a victory."

In his analysis of the match, the coach was blunt: "We're suffering from the few chances our opponents create. There were few, but they scored. We're in a negative defensive moment." At the same time, he emphasized that "if you don't show defensive and offensive presence, it doesn't work. We have to take responsibility for the moment, be resilient, and wait for reactions."

Looking ahead and leaving aside the tough setback against Malevo, Gallardo has already set his sights on the clásico in the Copa Argentina against Racing, a knockout match to be played on Thursday. "This was an important week after elimination to turn the page. Today we faltered, we couldn't do it, and we have the match with Racing left to take responsibility for what's been happening to us," he stated.

After four consecutive defeats, Gallardo was emphatic before the match with Academia: "We need a different reaction, one that involves everyone, and approach it with a different mindset because what we've done so far hasn't been enough."