Badges of two soccer teams over a lit-up stadium. — River will play without an audience against Barcelona de Guayaquil | La Derecha Diario

Camara — River will play without an audience against Barcelona de Guayaquil | La Derecha Diario

River hosts Barcelona at the Monumental without fans: How the last times went

As a result of the sanction imposed by Conmebol for the reception of Mineiro in the last Libertadores, Millonarios will play without an audience again after four years

07/04/2025 20:10:00h

Editorial Team

River Plate will host Barcelona de Guayaquil for the second matchday of the Copa Libertadores group stage without the presence of fans. This measure is due to the sanction imposed by Conmebol as a consequence of the spectacular reception in last year's semifinals against Atlético Mineiro. Consequently, the match will be played behind closed doors.

Due to this measure, from 9:30 PM tomorrow, the stands of the Monumental will be empty, and the atmosphere will remind us of those matches played during the pandemic, where the only sounds were the shouts of the players and the technical staff members, and the ball in motion.

The last time this happened was in 2021. At that time, River also faced Atlético Mineiro on August 11, in a match corresponding to the first leg of the quarterfinals. In that match, Nacho Fernández, who had recently moved from River to the Brazilian team, scored the only goal of that night. Later in the rematch in Brazil, the Belo Horizonte team would crush 3-0 the team led by Muñeco Gallardo.

Soccer players celebrating a goal in front of the goal.

The last time River played without an audience at Monumental was a 0-1 defeat against Mineiro | La Derecha Diario

During that edition of the Cup, marked by the Covid-19 health restrictions, River also played four other matches in Núñez without fans:

2-1 against Junior de Barranquilla (Group Stage)
2-1 against Independiente Santa Fe (Group Stage)[NdR: in this match Enzo Pérez was the goalkeeper due to Covid absences]
1-3 against Fluminense (Group Stage)
1-0 against Argentinos Juniors (Round of 16)

The last precedent due to a sanction

If a formal sanction is considered as the reason for the empty stands, the last time it happened was in March 2020, just before the quarantine was declared due to the pandemic in Argentina. That day, March 11, River annihilated Deportivo Binacional 8-0 in a silent Monumental, a punishment applied for the use of flares in the reception against Boca in the first leg of the previous edition's semifinal.

Soccer players from two different teams interact on the field during a match, one of them is sitting on the ground in a yellow uniform.

The last time, but due to suspension, was the historic 8-0 thrashing against Binacional | La Derecha Diario

On that occasion, Conmebol imposed a sanction of three matches without an audience. When football returned, the Millonario had to move to Independiente's field (already without fans, although this time for health reasons) and played there against São Paulo and Liga de Quito. That decision did not respond to the penalty, but to the remodeling works of the Monumental, which forced the Millo to play the rest of that Libertadores at the Rojo's stadium.

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